NK3

by Michael Tolkin

With The Player and The Return of the Player, Michael Tolkin established himself as the master novelist of modern Hollywood. In his new novel, NK3, the H LYW OD sign presides over a Los Angeles devastated by a weaponized microbe that has been accidentally spread around the globe, deleting human identity.
In post-NK3 Los Angeles, a sixty-foot-tall fence surrounds the hills where the rich used to live, but the mansions have been taken over by those with the only power that the power of memory. Life for the community inside the Fence, ruled over by the new aristocracy, the Verified, is a perpetual party. Outside the Fence, in downtown Los Angeles, the Verified use an invented mythology to keep control over the mindless and nameless Drifters, Shamblers, and Bottle Bangers who serve the gift economy until no longer needed. The ruler, Chief, takes his guidance from gigantic effigies of a man and a woman in the heart of the Fence. They warn him of trouble to come, but who is the person to the elusive Eckmann, holed up with the last functioning plane at LAX; Shannon Squier, the chisel-wielding pop superstar from the pre-NK3 world, pulled from the shambling masses; a treacherous member of Chief's inner circle; or Hopper, the uncommon Drifter compelled by an inner voice to search for a wife whose name and face he doesn't know? Each threatens to upset the delicate power balance in this fragile world.
In deliciously dark prose, Tolkin winds a noose-like plot around this melee of despots, prophets, and rebels as they struggle for command and survival in a town that still manages to exert a magnetic force, even as a ruined husk.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Novels, Science Fiction Fantasy

390 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2017

About the author

Michael Tolkin is an American filmmaker and novelist. He has written numerous screenplays, including The Player (1992), which he adapted from his 1988 book by the same name, and for which he received the 1993 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. A follow-up book, Return of the Player, was published in 2006.

Tolkin was born in New York City, New York, the son of Edith, a studio executive, and the late comedy writer Mel Tolkin. Tolkin lives in Los Angeles with his wife Wendy Mogel (parenting expert and author of bestseller The Blessing of a Skinned Knee).

Reviews

[Tom Wurzbach · Rating 1 out of 5]

What better way to hide deplorable writing and poor character development skills than to write a book where none of the characters have a back story or a personality? Brilliant.

I'm not sure why I finished this book except that I kept thinking the story had to go ... somewhere. It didn't. It ended abruptly and clumsily; there was no resolution to one of the major early subplots (the plane) and no idea of the future of any of the players. But the ending wasn't the only disappointment; I didn't care about any of the characters, the story was disjointed and the premise was just silly. It's just not a good book.

I can comfortably give this book one star because it gave me a special gift: the knowledge to never again read anything written by Michael Tolkin.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

NK3 versus Zone One

Tolkin brings a literary mind to a post-apocalyptic zombie genre where healthy Americans with normal appetites, but no pre-apocalypse memories, stand in for your typical flesh-munching zombies. The change from flesh-eating, to an instead memory-less zombie, produces a no less scary or dangerous world.

Reading Tolkin I was constantly reminded of Colson Whitehead's Zone One. Tolkin achieves where I think Whitehead fails. Both write well. Whitehead likely has the edge when it comes to artfully executed prose. Both contrast the current and post-apocalyptic worlds with biting reference to the choices we as individuals and societies make and their sometimes painful consequences. Whitehead uses New York as his canvas. The commentary largely targets the choices everyday hard-working New Yorkers make. Tolkin chooses Los Angeles and once again wittily bites the hand that feeds him, Hollywood. On the social commentary score, both novels offer interesting insights that elevate the genre. It's a tie here. The final showdown is the strength of the narrative. Tolkin handily wins here. The man knows story. There is a strong narrative with interesting character arcs that drive us forward. Tolkin pays attention to the tropes of the genre, even if it's only to turn them on their heads, and in so doing delivers an experience that is both rich and accessible to post-apocalyptic/zombie genre lovers. Sadly, Tolkin won't likely get the notice that Whitehead does, but for fans of the genre the choice is easy. Moreover, for literary readers looking to expand out into genre fiction, choose Tolkin and get a deeper sense of what the genre is about. For zombie genre lovers, read NK3 and enjoy a new twist.

[Steve · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, what a disappointment. No character development or back stories. Plodding plot that goes nowhere.

The only reason I gave this one star was because I listened to the audiobook: MacLeod Andrews is such an outstanding narrator.

[Micaela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope.

So, obviously this guy went to Burning Man, and was like, "What if EVERY DAY was like this?" I mean, it was a Burn from the minute these people are talking about radical inclusion, and The Man and The Woman. Come on. We get it. You're a Burner.

But even with all that, this could have been such a good book! But the writing was very vague and the plot is convoluted. It SEEMS that writing characters with no memories or emotions would be easy, but I think it is more difficult to make it truly believable.

Overall, a very cool premise, and it will probably make a very cool movie someday, but the plot needs to be less confusing and I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PLANE.

[Heronimo Gieronymus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tolkin has always been something of an existential doom laureate of the Greater Los Angeles sprawl, with its myth-generating factories and insidious personal narratives. As I have long claimed that Los Angeles movies tend to be end-times movies (KISS ME DEADLY perhaps being the preeminent urtext), it would seem appropriate that Tolkin would eventually produce a postapocalyptic book about the city which has provided such fertile ground for his vision of what is casually worst in us. But this is not postapocalypse, precisely - and postapocalypse never is - because what we are dealing with is the gutted ruins of civilization (in the wake of a biological attack that kinda got away from its engineers) in a state of distress, where memory has been buried in the farthest reaches of the cortex, and a significantly smaller number of people occupy contested space and a curiously rearranged hierarchy. In her blurb for the book, Chris Kraus calls NK3 "barely speculative" and perhaps "the first book of the Trump era." It would be tempting to call these statements hollow, and to conclude that they mean nothing. But they do indeed mean something, and they are in fact fundamentally wrong. First, the book very much is speculative fiction, engaged with a tradition, and tremendously exciting on that front. It is, as such, a work of tremendous imagination. All works of speculative fiction pull from our own world in order to mobilize fantastical ones in our imagination. Tolkin invokes writers like Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Rudy Wurlitzer (whose QUAKE is a Los Angeles novel that seems like a less-ambitious predecessor, though an equally powerful book). Also like Wurltizer, part of the pleasure of NK3 is the feverish quality of it; the fact that it paints abstracted and slightly inchoate pictures in your mind ... and at a prodigious clip. Saying that it is the first novel of the Trump era also ignores the regional specificity of its satire and the universal nature of its fascinating and brilliant engagement with the memory-identity complex. It is impossible to adequately address NK3 without at some point conceding that it is a philosophical novel, though a searing and fundamentally social one, at times quite bawdy. What is totally clear, however, is that this is a work of not inconsiderable intelligence, and, though indelibly bleak when you back up and get a purchase on it, a wildly imaginative thrill.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up on this and DNF because I found it confusing and disjointed. Tolkin has an interesting premise that he didn't really follow through on. I couldn't find a character I cared about. That said, this isn't really my genre so try it if you like dystopian tales or sci-fi. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

[Annette Scherr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this dystopian fiction and kept on going anticipating some sort of dramatic ending. As I read I struggled trying to fathom how all the loose threads would bind together. I read on faithfully to the end where my expectations were promptly deflated. This book could have been the bomb but instead it was the bust. I'm glad Los Angeles hasn't been reduced to rubble and burn fields and that lax is still operating so I can still catch a flight to Cabo on the 15. Writing ability A Character Development C- Plot needs review too many loose end

[Rob Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this could've used another draft or two. Some really interesting ideas are nearly swamped by choppy storytelling and plot threads that are abruptly dropped without any reason. There are still some darkly funny and insightful bits though.

[Denis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought it was an interesting idea but the book went nowhere and was not worth my time

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise, solid, as a virus wipes the long and short term memories of humanity. Even those who survive are fragments of themselves, and it works. Bonus points for writing about a pandemic that starts in late 2019. That's just such fun to read about in 2020, eh?

The story around that premise is semi-coherent, which, again...works. For most of it. I mean, everyone's barely competent, the world of post-virus LA is a drifting addled mess, and so characters and narrative flow that reflect that kinda sorta work. No one knows what the hell is going on or what they're doing, not really, so it just feels like you're along for that ride.

You hook in to several sub plots, and while some characters are more vividly crafted than others, there's enough there to hang on to for a solid 90% of the book.

Does it end effectively? O Baby Jesus no. The last forty pages are nothing but narrative decoherence, and it ends without ending. Just kinda stops. Zero resolution. That, coupled with a little bit too much semi-adolescent orgy-porgy with virus-addled women who are reduced to nothing but their mindless drives? I can see that not working for plenty of folks, meaning women readers generally.

A two point nine.

[Unseen Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of NK3 from Allen & Unwin Australia to review.

I did a short review of this book in the Canberra Weekly:
https://unseenlibrary.com/2018/11/15/...

Originally reviewed back in December 2017, I have re-published this review on my blog as part of my Throwback Thursday series.

For other interesting reviews, visit my blog at:
https://unseenlibrary.com/

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Post-apocalypse L.A. meets Burning Man...

[Kendra Haggerty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, interesting and different futuristic story but horrible ending. Either author gave up or a sequel is coming

[Steven Pilling · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting my only previous time reading him was The Player.

The book resembles in many ways early Ballard but without some of his harsher elements.

Characters lack something which is probably deliberate and fits with the premise of the book , but it has something about it which for me meant that all the positives got eaten away at , and I finished admiring the book but slightly disappointed

[William Poehlman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd be happy if Michael would finish writing this story. It's obvious that when he was suddenly called away to do a screenplay or whatever, his secretary/ assistant accidentally found this unfinished manuscript and sent it off to the publisher.

[Belle · Rating 2 out of 5]

*This book contains rape and all other forms of abuse*

This book has a fantastic premise. I absolutely love the post apocalyptic/dystopian genre. The concept of the NK3 virus is terrifying and I was so excited to read this book. Unfortunately, it fell short in the execution, which is really disappointing considering how great I think this book could've been.

The writing style makes it a bit of a struggle to get into at the beginning. It took me a little while to get used to the world, the new places, the new workings of society, the new names. As someone who's not at all familiar with California, I really think a map would have been rather handy! I had zero concept of how far the airport was from the fence & other places, which really made immersion difficult.

You're constantly bouncing back and forth between countless characters, who are all pretty one dimensional and more or less the same, which only makes it harder to remember who's who. The book is written scene by scene as opposed to by chapter, and each scene is titled with all the names of the characters that appear in that scene. Lasting from a single paragraph, to multiple pages.

I did like the different tiers or 'waves' of society, directly linked to the severity of the damage NK3 had per each individual and those who underwent rehab and those who didn't. I also liked the concept of the fence and the different zones, (again, a map would have been great!). Lastly, I absolutely loved how the people were brought together by music . That was so touching and so believable, definitely the best part of the entire book.

However, overall it was just too much of a struggle. I didn't connect with any of the characters, the world was a little disjointed, there was too much mindless sex and orgies, and I just didn't really find it enjoyable. Not to mention, (and this is my fault) I skimmed most of the end and have no idea what was happening with the 'teacher'/Mayor. He was a real person, what? When to he acquire a body.. I went back and tried to read it to understand what happened but I gave up.

[Dimitrije Vojnov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Tolkin je uporedo sa uspešnom scenarističkom karijerom gradio i veoma cenjeni prozni opus. Njegov roman je bio osnov za najvažniji ali ne i jedini odličan film snimljen po njegovim scenarijima - PLAYER Roberta Altmana.

Kasnije je napisao i nastavak tog romana, inače veoma neprihvatljiv za ekranizaciju.

NK3 je deo kritike percipirao kao "hendikepirani" scenario, high concept priču o apokalipsi smeštenu u Los Anđeles koji je pregažen kao i ostatak sveta pandemijom severnokorejskog virusa koji je dove do amnezije i gubitka razuma.

Moram priznati, takav opis je otprilike uverljiv kao i zamisao da je Tolkin želeo da po nastavku PLAYERa nastane film. Dakle, nema veze s istinom.

Po NK3 bi mogao da se snimi film koliko i po nekom najradikalnijem Ballardovom rukopisu - dakle teško, iako je jasno vidljivo kako je filmska dramaturgija uticala na način pisanja.

NK3 je prvoklasna ballardiana, napisana dosta radikalno, u jednom vrlo sugestivnom prikazu sveta u kome ljudi ne znaju ko su i šta su, i sad lutaju kroz tu mentalnu a i sve prisutniju fizičku pustoš, dok iz njihove podsvesti izbija sve, od dubokih instinkta do neke neshvatljive površnosti i lenjosti.

NK3 je izazovan roman za čitanje, kao najbolji Ballard, stilski konkretan ali neobičan u premisi koja na kraju počinje da utiče na sam tekst.

U tom smislu, čak sam i ja imao teškoće da se snađem u namerno dementnim okolnostima narativa gde ljudi nose imena javnih ličnosti ili brendova na koja su naišli lutajući postapokaliptičnim svetom, bez sposobnosti da čak i sa tim uspostave suštinsku vezu.

U izvesnom smislu, mislim da je ovaj roman morao biti na neki način uključen u Ballardov kanon, ako išta kao "najbolji" ili "jedan od najboljih" njegovih romana koje nije on lično napisao.

Zanimljivo je da se u romanu pojavljuju i neke stvarne ličnosti u svojoj dementnoj verziji. Među njima je i Bruce Willis koji je par godina kasnije zapravo zaista oboleo od neke vrste demencije što svemu daje jednu melanholičnu dimenziju.

NK3 je odličan roman, ali apsolutno obavezno štivo za Ballardove poštovaoce i ballardiance bilo kog tipa.

[Matthew Brady · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an odd book, but an interesting one, even if I'm not sure of the metaphors it's using. It's a post-apocalyptic story about people rebuilding society in Los Angeles after a genetically engineered plague wipes out everyone's memory. The few people who were able to get some treatment in the early days of the plague are all that's left to lead society, and they've set themselves up as a ruling class in a walled-off section of the city, using the Drifters that wander around as manual labor and occasionally cherry-picking different people to join them if they have skills that can be used. There's some interesting stuff going on, looking at the way people exploit each other and the way they try to create some new religious symbols now that the old ones don't have any more meaning to anybody, but a lot of the book is so plot-focused that the attempts at social commentary kind of get lost in the background, and the plot itself (having to do with a man apparently trying to infiltrate the walled off area in order to find his lost wife, and another splinter society trying to escape via airplane, and the society itself collapsing in on itself) isn't really interesting enough to function as a draw. There are occasional conversations or scenes that are really interesting, but they were unfortunately few and far between, and they never really add up to much. Too bad; this one had potential, but I came away unsatisfied.

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've heard reviews calling Michael TolkinNK3 the "first book of the Trump era." This is an apt description, in ways. The world's people have lost their memories. Through rehab, some of the surface levels of social connection have returned, and most people are operating on the basic, shallow level of food and sex. Think of a Burning Man festival that never ends. No roving gangs of bloodthirsty whatevers lurking at every turn, at least in the City Center. Post-apocalyptic stories are usually far more brutal.
The problem with the book's premise, however, that it leaves most of the book unengaging, and I really didn't care about any of the characters. t - if you consider the survivors of the NK3 virus are utterly without human qualities - sure, they are "human" beings, but vapid, ignorant, and utterly lacking in curiosity. It was only the last 50 pages or so that pulled me in, wanting to find out about one of the fringe character's subplots. The ending was pretty open ended, but sort of a big "so what." After hoping for something more outstanding after wading through all of the non-engaging characters, I was left disappointed.

[TheCosyDragon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon . Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.

North Korea released a virus that turns people into Drifters, or essentially, Zombies. Some people are immune, or have been retrained in time. All technology has been lost – except one plane out of there. I didn’t hang around long enough to find out if they even left.

“Deliciously dark prose”? Try incomprehensibly dark plot line. I tried desperately to connect with any of the characters, but instead found them falling out of my mind faster than a Drifter forgot their families. Skipping around different perspectives gives this novel nothing worthwhile, and just left me confused and irritated. There seemed to be no forwards plot that I could identify in the first half of the novel, and after that I gave up.

Looking for a virus/biohazard take-over-the-world thriller? Try SKITTER or The Ego Cluster. Want something with Zombies? Try The Rains (review to come). This one is probably not going to be for you unless you enjoy incomprehensible plots with characters that you can’t connect with. I couldn’t finish this novel. 1 star.

[Rick Kohut · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting premise to be sure - a mysterious North Korean virus wipes the memory of everyone in the U.S. Some of the more prominent survivors have gone through a process to restore at least some of their memories and therefore their identities. With this framework, there's many directions the author could have gone.

Unfortunately, he went small rather than big. A more engaging book for me would have been a broader, country-wide or global story about this impact of this civilization-changing event. Instead the author's narrow focus is just on L.A. and how those who are "restored" are recreating society. While there are some interesting, thought-provoking aspects to this plot, there is too much which is left incomplete - especially related to the less-than-thumbnail sketches of characters. I did finish the book, mainly to see if there was a worthy conclusion to the story. Unfortunately, I was let down when I discovered - nope, there wasn't.

[richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5. Zombie apocalypse with multiple classes of zombies depending on how important people were seen to be for the eventual recovery of Los Angeles from a chemical weapon attack. Strange borrowings from Burning Man and from popular culture. Occasionally characters go completely beyond the limitations Tolkin has placed on them, to make interesting observations about what's happening, and it was for these fragments that I carried on reading despite my misgivings and despite feeling that the author was betraying the order he'd created in order to write something interesting. But ultimately neither plot nor character development was satisfactory from my standpoint, and I do agree with some others that this is essentially a movie script rather than a novel. A very long movie script. Might even be a good movie someday.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a world where North Korea releases an unproven chemical/biological attack that strips the human mind of memories and the ability to retain basic logic and relationship connections. On one hand, a dire post-apocalyptic world where no one is self-sufficient or knowledgeable - or if they are knowledgeable, they are quickly considered a threat to the people in charge who lack those memories and mental skills. At many points, this book paints scenes and the outline of a story that would make a great movie, but the basic inability of the characters to logically respond to problems would make this a frustrating film to watch. Scary and creative, with some definite ideas about how people stripped of the ability to form real relationships or learning would end in destruction.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The problem with the premise of this book, is that if you have a nano bot that wipes people's minds then there can be no character development.
The tale of a plague of nano bots that accidentally got out of hand and screwed up the world is kind of interesting. It reminds us that our demise may well be a slip up! The way humanity copes and utilities what they have has potential as a story but, as I said, the concept of the story is its downfall.
No one remembers how they are or how they are related or how to do their job...so no one actually has any distinguishing features of any kind. there's some stuff about how some people have been turned into roving gangs of crazies but it all got a bit boring for me!
I gave up about 1/3 into this book.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting premise: North Korea releases a virus that causes everyone to loose their memories of practically everything but language. A treatment is found, but it is imperfect, so the treated people can't effectively apply it to others. We end up, four years later, in a city with a relatively few people with some remembered skills, and a lot of "drifters."

Unfortunately, Tolkin doesn't take this premise anywhere. There are story lines -- a man looking for his wife, problems with the food inventory, one group trying to escape by plane -- but none of them go anywhere. They don't even get any significant development until late in the book, and none of them reach anything close to a resolution.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

A somewhat derivative, but inventive approach to dystopian fiction - yeah maybe. Too often wanders away into oblique inconsequential dead ends. Prefers to indulge in the poor writing syndrome of jitterbugging from one character to the next, often without apparent tie in, rather than paying attention to plot development - although to be fair as it turns out there isn't much of a plot here despite a promising initial premise. Does move right along though up until the end. Imaginative - yes. People skills - not so much. Highly disappointing in the sense that the writing was just good enough to carry me to the end and succeed eminently in wasting my time - hey maybe that was the point all along? The prologue might be the most polished piece in the entire book.

[Ken Ransom · Rating 3 out of 5]

NK-3 is a weaponized nanobacterium that destroys people's memories. The reader won't have trouble remembering the characters in the story of the world brought down by the loss of memory since each chapter is titled with a list of of who is appearing next.

There are various degrees of memory loss in this dystopian tale of an aristocracy living in hedonistic excess surrounded by a sixty-foot tall wall keeping out thousands of Drifters and Shamblers who serve the elite until they are no longer needed.

The portrayl of a world brought down by the loss of memory is dissapointing.

[Reet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kim Jong Un decides to quit messing around and releases an airborne virus that is borne through the air, globally. Now, many humans are dead and those that are left over can't remember who they were, or how to do what they used to do. How would the city you live in survive? If you got sick and went to the hospital, could anyone remember what to do to save your life? Would the food run out? Would electricity keep going? Water? Sewage systems?

I loved this book, but what happened to the airplane?

[glasnt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Given I'm writing this review in mid 2020, you can understand how the juxtaposition of the current world and the 'world' in this book made this an already hard slog.

I was hoping for some sort of validation or happy ending, but with unreliable narrators literally begin the plot point, don't think there will be any resolution.

This book ended up in my collection by way of a brown bag freebie at some point. I honestly picked it up out of sheer boredom, and in all honesty I should have been paid to take it off whatever bookstore's hands.

Do yourself a favour and skip this one.

[Mike G · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book imagines what we might be like if we all suddenly lost our memory, as individuals and as a society, with only limited capacity for retrieval. What would we value then?
It's an engaging, satirical story. The characters are compelling and the dialog is often terrific -- I especially liked Redwings, the loyal biker with the heart of gold and ever-expanding vocabulary.
I do wish there was more at the end, though. And what happened to the plane?