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Nine Inch Bride #1
Conundrum
Out of print
Set in the near future, a young Wall Street analyst falls into joblessness and financial ruin in a major market crash. He is rescued in his descent by a uniquely talented young woman with a revolutionary agenda. Together they form an extraordinary partnership and set out to change the world. The present and future, real and unreal fuel a serious and lighthearted bonfire of American political culture.
Set in the near future, a young Wall Street analyst falls into joblessness and financial ruin in a major market crash. He is rescued in his descent by a uniquely talented young woman with a revolutionary agenda. Together they form an extraordinary partnership and set out to change the world. The present and future, real and unreal fuel a serious and lighthearted bonfire of American political culture.
- GenresScience Fiction
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 9, 2012
11 people are currently reading
479 people want to read
About the author
_Anonym
2 books13 followersanonym - n. ăn'ə-nĭm'
An anonymous person.
A pseudonym.
[French anonyme, from Late Latin anōnymus]
"Bred to a harder thing
Than Triumph, turn away
And like a laughing string
Whereon mad fingers play
Amid a place of stone,
Be secret and exult,
Because of all things known
That is most difficult."
W.B. Yeats
An anonymous person.
A pseudonym.
[French anonyme, from Late Latin anōnymus]
"Bred to a harder thing
Than Triumph, turn away
And like a laughing string
Whereon mad fingers play
Amid a place of stone,
Be secret and exult,
Because of all things known
That is most difficult."
W.B. Yeats
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 24, 2012
There's not a lot wrong with this book that a good editor couldn't fix. There are scads of misspellings and punctuation and grammatical errors, but more bothersome is that it needs to be cut by about half.
The premise is just wacky enough to be interesting, and it could carry the work if the story were allowed to stand on its own. Unfortunately, Sahar spends way too much time pontificating. And what she is saying is not only repetitive and boring, but really unclear. She refers at least 3 times to it being "truer than your understanding." Sorry, but I don't buy it. If she can't make it make sense, then I don't want to spend my time reading it. Yes, I get that the author seems him/herself as an Ayn-Rand-opposite. But it's the plot here that's worth reading for, not the polemics. And if it's the latter that the author really cares about, then he/she has a lot of clean-up work to do before people are going to be willing to pay any attention.
The last thing a good editor should get rid of is the annoying and amateurish names the author chooses for characters modeled on well-known figures or companies: Wilton Creedman? JP Gorgan Caste? Greuters? Really???
That said, the plot and story-line are good, and I did find Sahar and Ken (the first-person protagonist) interesting. I debated between 2 and 3 stars for it, and would've given 2.5 if it existed.
The premise is just wacky enough to be interesting, and it could carry the work if the story were allowed to stand on its own. Unfortunately, Sahar spends way too much time pontificating. And what she is saying is not only repetitive and boring, but really unclear. She refers at least 3 times to it being "truer than your understanding." Sorry, but I don't buy it. If she can't make it make sense, then I don't want to spend my time reading it. Yes, I get that the author seems him/herself as an Ayn-Rand-opposite. But it's the plot here that's worth reading for, not the polemics. And if it's the latter that the author really cares about, then he/she has a lot of clean-up work to do before people are going to be willing to pay any attention.
The last thing a good editor should get rid of is the annoying and amateurish names the author chooses for characters modeled on well-known figures or companies: Wilton Creedman? JP Gorgan Caste? Greuters? Really???
That said, the plot and story-line are good, and I did find Sahar and Ken (the first-person protagonist) interesting. I debated between 2 and 3 stars for it, and would've given 2.5 if it existed.
May 17, 2019
Nine Inch Bride (Conundrum)by Anonym
Can be just that at times, a Conundrum.
Someone just mentioned that old show Land of the Giants. You know. Where all the props were made huge like huge dial telephones. Seems a stretch but then if you think of mice and then realize that a rats DNA is close to human DNA and then wrap that all around into itself you might be able to begin to see the possibility of a tiny recreation of what is human. Gives new meaning to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Of course, if we scale things we notice that this tiny woman has more computing power than some of us average humans, which may indicate that maybe the rest of us are only using a golf-ball size portion of our brains most of the time.
There are high points in this story that are certainly entertaining. The value of that entertainment might easily be measured by the fact that I finished it. There is a serious amount of exposition inside and throughout and I hope that the sequel helps justify the need for all of it. At times it may sound a bit preachy as concerns our economic and political structures.
The Story begins with Ken our protagonist a wall street wizard of sorts who finds himself swept up with all the rest during a recent crash that has cost him his meager fortune and his job. The first half of the book brings him from his prideful beginnings to his darkest depths of despair. He loses his respect his girl and almost his life. I found this part to be almost excessively depressing though I can see the point in that we need to bring the man down to size, so to speak.
In steps Sahar (our little lady) through a bit of serendipity coincidence she comes into his life to save him from-- himself. She has a lot more faith in Ken than even the reader does at this point.
What holds the readers attention up to this point is a strange patchwork of Purplish prose that on the literary end might mirror some things I've seen in Ken Kesey and Thomas Wolf. I enjoy this type of writing, although I know some people who don't, so, beware.
We receive a rather colorful view of the big city, the workings of wall-street, and this near future world that the author builds around the narrative of the collapsing ego of Ken. There are other casualties and up to a point I wasn't sure if I should pull for Ken or let him go.
Sahar brings Ken back to life and into the readers head with a rather lengthy exposition about her rise to obscure fame and riches that will inevitably be able to help him regain himself. Sahar almost seems like a figment of Ken's imagination and it is easy to fill in those blanks at first. It takes both the reader and Ken a while to accept that there really is a nine inch little lady who has a head for commodities and a heart for re-engineering the structure of society.
Often much of what Sahar touches in her lengthy diatribe corners into areas that seem more dangerous than Ken should be comfortable with. It's often extremely difficult to tell if Sahar is the devil or his advocate or if she has a seriously different take on politics that I just can't see yet. Several times I think she wander off into areas of chaotic rebellion instead of betterment of society.
It's not until the terrorist attack that you get a more stable view of what Sahar is about and I have to wonder if the speech she gave Ken might be misleading or if there will be some return to the radical nature in future parts of this novel.
This is a thought provoking novel that somewhat defies genre at the moment. I suppose that it might be literature in the same nature that Ann Rands Atlas Shrugged is. There is enough here to keep the reader interested though some might be deterred by Sahar's long dialogue intro. But, then again how would one go about introducing this diminutive character.
I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel.
J.L. Dobias
Can be just that at times, a Conundrum.
Someone just mentioned that old show Land of the Giants. You know. Where all the props were made huge like huge dial telephones. Seems a stretch but then if you think of mice and then realize that a rats DNA is close to human DNA and then wrap that all around into itself you might be able to begin to see the possibility of a tiny recreation of what is human. Gives new meaning to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Of course, if we scale things we notice that this tiny woman has more computing power than some of us average humans, which may indicate that maybe the rest of us are only using a golf-ball size portion of our brains most of the time.
There are high points in this story that are certainly entertaining. The value of that entertainment might easily be measured by the fact that I finished it. There is a serious amount of exposition inside and throughout and I hope that the sequel helps justify the need for all of it. At times it may sound a bit preachy as concerns our economic and political structures.
The Story begins with Ken our protagonist a wall street wizard of sorts who finds himself swept up with all the rest during a recent crash that has cost him his meager fortune and his job. The first half of the book brings him from his prideful beginnings to his darkest depths of despair. He loses his respect his girl and almost his life. I found this part to be almost excessively depressing though I can see the point in that we need to bring the man down to size, so to speak.
In steps Sahar (our little lady) through a bit of serendipity coincidence she comes into his life to save him from-- himself. She has a lot more faith in Ken than even the reader does at this point.
What holds the readers attention up to this point is a strange patchwork of Purplish prose that on the literary end might mirror some things I've seen in Ken Kesey and Thomas Wolf. I enjoy this type of writing, although I know some people who don't, so, beware.
We receive a rather colorful view of the big city, the workings of wall-street, and this near future world that the author builds around the narrative of the collapsing ego of Ken. There are other casualties and up to a point I wasn't sure if I should pull for Ken or let him go.
Sahar brings Ken back to life and into the readers head with a rather lengthy exposition about her rise to obscure fame and riches that will inevitably be able to help him regain himself. Sahar almost seems like a figment of Ken's imagination and it is easy to fill in those blanks at first. It takes both the reader and Ken a while to accept that there really is a nine inch little lady who has a head for commodities and a heart for re-engineering the structure of society.
Often much of what Sahar touches in her lengthy diatribe corners into areas that seem more dangerous than Ken should be comfortable with. It's often extremely difficult to tell if Sahar is the devil or his advocate or if she has a seriously different take on politics that I just can't see yet. Several times I think she wander off into areas of chaotic rebellion instead of betterment of society.
It's not until the terrorist attack that you get a more stable view of what Sahar is about and I have to wonder if the speech she gave Ken might be misleading or if there will be some return to the radical nature in future parts of this novel.
This is a thought provoking novel that somewhat defies genre at the moment. I suppose that it might be literature in the same nature that Ann Rands Atlas Shrugged is. There is enough here to keep the reader interested though some might be deterred by Sahar's long dialogue intro. But, then again how would one go about introducing this diminutive character.
I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel.
J.L. Dobias
March 8, 2013
The current economic culture is certainly one that deserves to be satired a bit. // Conundrum: Nine Inch Bride// is a first-person narrative about Ken, a trader who has just been laid off due to a recession in the near future, has been the victim of a forced break-up by his lover’s father, and has been essentially hung out to dry by the system. With little to lose he agrees to a meeting with an old friend and his new partner. Through the agency of that partner, Ken is witness to the beginnings of new way of looking at financial systems, one that allows for a return to a free market system rather than the moribund world to which Ken belongs.
This is almost a satire of //Atlas Shrugged//. The world is a dystopian future where everyone likes the soul-crushing nature of the capitalist structure. Rather than a dynamic culture, the culture has become static, requiring a disaster or two to get it started up again. Ken is almost the polar opposite to John Galt, in that he allows what happens to happen, with limited steering of it himself. Ultimately it is ironic that Ken becomes an apathetic revolutionary in re-defining the world. Even the short length of the work is a decent satire of the other book’s length.
This makes for a lot of philosophical discussions in the book, with some that seem to go on for perhaps a bit much. There is some padding here and there, but otherwise the verbiage is very nicely limited to an absolute minimum. There is no real story here, but that is part of the satire; rather than being a dynamic character, Ken merely follows events along. It makes some interesting points regarding today’s capitalism, and that it needs to change, but those points are sometimes too heavy-handed and off-putting. For someone looking for a good antidote tp //Atlas Shrugged//, however, this makes for an excellent read.
This is almost a satire of //Atlas Shrugged//. The world is a dystopian future where everyone likes the soul-crushing nature of the capitalist structure. Rather than a dynamic culture, the culture has become static, requiring a disaster or two to get it started up again. Ken is almost the polar opposite to John Galt, in that he allows what happens to happen, with limited steering of it himself. Ultimately it is ironic that Ken becomes an apathetic revolutionary in re-defining the world. Even the short length of the work is a decent satire of the other book’s length.
This makes for a lot of philosophical discussions in the book, with some that seem to go on for perhaps a bit much. There is some padding here and there, but otherwise the verbiage is very nicely limited to an absolute minimum. There is no real story here, but that is part of the satire; rather than being a dynamic character, Ken merely follows events along. It makes some interesting points regarding today’s capitalism, and that it needs to change, but those points are sometimes too heavy-handed and off-putting. For someone looking for a good antidote tp //Atlas Shrugged//, however, this makes for an excellent read.
April 26, 2016
Whoa, the Goodreads page for this title -- Conundrum, the first book in an intended Nine Inch Bride series of fiction -- is saying that it's currently out of print! That's a surprise to me and a terrible, terrible shame.
The author of Conundrum, the so-called "anonym," is brilliantly insightful. I think this book is best described by: (1) a quotation of praise featured on the back of my paperback edition calling it "...a scrumptious satire that rewards close attention," and; (2) the concise description provided on the back(!) The book describes itself as:
"...not your mama's sci-fi. No wild-eyed future is depicted here. The series begins with imaginative storytelling where non-fiction thought leaders leave off and goes on to provide a subtly harrowing preview of 'coming attractions.'"
This book ought to be published widely; it has critical, unique insights to share with a wide audience. Publishing world, I implore you: please don't fail to make these ideas broadly available.
Thank you for reading/skimming this review. I hope it is somehow helpful. Please be advised I received a free copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
The author of Conundrum, the so-called "anonym," is brilliantly insightful. I think this book is best described by: (1) a quotation of praise featured on the back of my paperback edition calling it "...a scrumptious satire that rewards close attention," and; (2) the concise description provided on the back(!) The book describes itself as:
"...not your mama's sci-fi. No wild-eyed future is depicted here. The series begins with imaginative storytelling where non-fiction thought leaders leave off and goes on to provide a subtly harrowing preview of 'coming attractions.'"
This book ought to be published widely; it has critical, unique insights to share with a wide audience. Publishing world, I implore you: please don't fail to make these ideas broadly available.
Thank you for reading/skimming this review. I hope it is somehow helpful. Please be advised I received a free copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
July 6, 2013
The metaphors at the beginning are extremely forced. The plot? Well, not that bad but gets a bit incoherent once Sahar appears. Also, the gimmick of playing with names seems to pop up without rationale and really goes nowhere. An Brand? Come on. Gerd Bratenberg did a fantastic job with gender loaded names in Egalia's Daughters (Karla Marx, Walta Whitwom). Overall, the writing and crafting of the book are just not up to the standards of a publishable novel.
June 24, 2013
Sorry. I just couldn't get into this book. The writing felt forced. I felt nothing for the main character. Maybe it gets better after the second chapter, but...
This felt like a male book. Male main character. Just not for me.
This felt like a male book. Male main character. Just not for me.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews