High Voltage

Exponential Apocalypse #3

by Eirik Gumeny

The world has ended twenty-six and a half times to date... but that's not about to stop it from trying again. The sun, after a particularly debaucherous evening, has stumbled across the horizon and flipped a giant, geomagnetic middle finger at the Earth, detonating nearly every transformer and power line on the planet and crippling the single electrical grid that powers North America. The world has been plunged back into the Boring Ages overnight. Although this means very little to anyone, as no one is able to Google when the Boring Ages were or how society got out of them the first time. With darkness looming, the economy crashing, and nobody's DVRs working, everything seems lost; humanity is one more unmicrowaved Hot Pocket away from eating itself alive. So now it's up to Thor, the former Norse God of Thunder, and the ragtag group of mercenary "heroes" he calls friends to set things right and hotwire the North American continent. HIGH VOLTAGE, the third novel in the EXPONENTIAL APOCALYPSE series, is the perfect jumping on point for new readers. All of the fast-paced humor and snark of the first two critically-acclaimed, best-selling books and none of the having to read them first. Witty and wired, HIGH VOLTAGE is the post-apocalyptic dark comedy for anyone who wishes The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy had more dick jokes or Clerks had more homicidal old lady ghosts. And, you know, was a book.

222 pages, Paperback

First published February 24, 2014

About the author

Eirik Gumeny is the [insert superlatives here] author of BEGGARS WOULD RIDE and the cult-favorite EXPONENTIAL APOCALYPSE series. He's written for Cracked, WIRED, Nerdist, SYFY, a couple of medical textbooks and even the New York Times once.

Born with cystic fibrosis, Eirik still has cystic fibrosis, because that's how genetic diseases work. In 2014, he received a double lung transplant and technically died a little. He got better.

Forged in the suburban sprawl of northeastern New Jersey, Eirik currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he regularly has to fight giant atomic ants with a flamethrower. Follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his newsletter for updates.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an entertaining elaboration on an increasingly elaborate and intricate world. Seriously, Gumeny makes frequent use of the incredibly complex series of apocalypses that make up this world. The ability to even keep all that straight, much less develop it and reference it in a relevant way as a meaningful story goes on, is astounding. It really forms the main lifeblood of the series for me, though the main story arc with the humorous characters is a great deal of fun as well. Definitely heading into the next volume soon.

[Florian Armas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a strange relationship with this book. I closed it after finishing the Prologue and took a long breath and a long break - it was totally outside my normal reading list. Identically, things repeated with the first chapter, just that I don't remember if I could still breathe, but the break was longer. With a kind of mad courage I stepped into the Boring Ages, and suddenly, a strange switch followed: I liked the second chapter. A whole new and mostly bizarre post-apocalyptic world took shape, describing the adventures of a bunch of famous clones and a psychedelic squirrel trying to recover the world from an electrical grid failure and volcanic winter. Dark humor abounds. Weird. Original. Not for everybody. There is plenty of vulgarity that adds nothing to the good dark humor, but you will still like the book.

[FunkMaster General · Rating 4 out of 5]

More gods, more paranormal activity, more death, destruction, end-time end-games.

Now, with footnotes.

I like the footnotes.

[Elizabeth Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this series a bit out of order. I received an ARC for #4 and that was my introduction to Eirik Gumeny. After that, I read #1, #2, and finally, #3 (this one). The writing was just as good and the plot was just as convoluted and unexpected as the other three, but I found myself wanting more at the end (but I’d already read the last one first). As with all of Eirik’s books, I have a few favorite quotes. I love the company that didn’t care about its customers: Consolidated Phukital. I loved that the letters for the sign for the Rockaway Townsquare Mall had collapsed such that it read “GO AWAY.” I’m not really sure how that was possible, but I liked it anyway. Then, there was the organization referred to as PUTA – People for the Unethical Treatment of Animals!

Chapter titles were often amusing, with my favorite being “Getting the Band Back Together.” Any reference to The Blues Brothers is going to get high grades from me. I am also a big fan of personification, especially when combined with poetic images. Naturally, I loved this portion of a sentence, “…..brilliantly lunar light banging furiously on the cloud cover and screaming to be let in.” It’s so vivid! Not long after that, Eirik describes someone who is waiting in the dark as “a gargoyle made of meat and a large faux fur-lined snowsuit.”

The name of a former porn star was inspired: Tyrone Tainthammer. It still makes me laugh! There’s even a easily-missed reference to 3 Mile Island when someone conjectures that the energy grid went down when someone poured Sunkist on the computer (reminded me of the SNL skit from ages ago). Daddy Jon’s pizza is described as pizza that “tastes like what other pizzas throw up after a night of eating garbage.” This is a book that I found myself stopping on numerous occasions just so I could share one of the jokes with whoever was nearby. Fortunately for me, I read at home. Once I catch up with my current list of ARC’s, I’ll be reading more of Eirik Gumeny!

[T.D. Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twenty-six and a half apocalypses, so what's one more. This book is a wild and funny dark comedy with characters that are way out of left field. There's Thor, the Norse Thunder God, and Boudica IX, a cloned and cybernetically enhanced Celtic Queen, who are teamed up the likes of more cybernetically enhanced clones of Queen Victoria and President Chester A. Arthur. There is even a psychic cybernetic squirrel. Their mission (other to avoid boredom and occasional debauchery) is to fix the damage done to what was left of the North American power grid after a major solar event thrashes it.

The pacing of the story is quick and so are the insults. I really liked some of the chapter titles. It provided me with a good perspective of what whacked out situation or sociological ideal the characters were going to boldly address with as much in your face attitude you can stand.

I found myself trying to catch up a bit, probably since I haven't read the other two books of the series, but the author helps to bring you up to speed. My only issue really was the level of profanity and vulgarity he used. I think the story could have been just as fun and enjoyable if there were toned down.

Overall, it was a fun read. Just remember to watch out for strange German cloning factories churning out copies of famous people. It could be a trend in the future that might catch on.

[Eirik Gumeny · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, in my ongoing revisitation of the older books while I finish the new book -- soon, I swear -- I finally got around to (more or less) objectively reading High Voltage. And... I liked it. The scavenger hunt plot was a nice change of pace, I liked the B plot possible more than the A plot, and I'm glad [redacted] made his return.

Definitely no writery baggage brought to this one, unlike Dead Presidents, so that's good -- I can just read the book for what it is. That said, HV doesn't stick with me the way the first book did, but I think that's because I didn't know what I was doing the first time around. Exponential Apocalypse was great because it wasn't written to be a book, and that manic, I'm-not-entirely-sure-this-is-going-to-work vibe comes through. That's probably not something I'll ever be able to recreate and I should probably come to terms with that.

[Ian McClellan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've read the first two books in this series, then you know what to expect here- cloned presidents, a psychic super-squirrel, and a petulant thunder god out to save the world from the umpteenth apocalypse. Brilliantly funny with at least one laugh out loud on every page. If you haven't read the first two books in this series, then go get started right now!

[Stephen Schwegler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another classic from Mr. Gumeny. I'll take this Thor over any of the Marvel Thors any day.

[Jeffrey Hatcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Lewis Carrol and George Lucas coauthored a book over a large pot of espresso and a little tinge of 'roid - rage, it might read something like High Voltage. Eirik Gumeny produces a graphic novel using words alone.

The book is loosely held together which is both virtue and vice. For the younger to middle-aged male who has just finished 'one of those weeks', it makes for an excellent evaporative coolant. Whether it includes a telepathic squirrel, a more bionic and less flesh and blood man, or a Norse god suffering from ADD, each chapter of the book appeals to the reader's senses while demanding minimal introspective thought. It is undemanding.

The vice of the book is its multiple references to the numerous and recurrent Armageddons predating the story. They chiefly distract the reader who begins to wonder if there is any point to following a bigger storyline. However, it is presumably part of a series and maybe not intended to be a stand-alone work. It ends somewhat abruptly which might work fine as one moves on to the next story.

Gumeny's manic and colorful descriptions of scenes, characters, and actions tune to the book's title quite well. The book entertains best with wine and Cheetos on a Thursday evening or on a weekend night when one hasn't any date.