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Cubeball
The Future of Sport? Cubeball is a futuristic science fiction novel that follows the life of Mickey Allen and his struggle to compete in the world's most popular sport, the fast-paced technologically enhanced snooker of the future. 3D holograph technology and enhanced players make for a game with chess-like battles and high stakes. Each team of 3 (player, strategist and comtech), competes on a world stage dominated by gambling, drugs and massive audiences. Mickey, a cubeball player with a natural and unique talent, is a one-time national champion - the youngest ever. Disillusioned by an industry dominated by illegal business dealings and technological enhancements, Mickey spends ten years in refuge on Mars until his drug-fuelled life reaches a point of homeless destitution.Without means of subsistence, Mickey looks to his estranged sister Riley, a success in her own right in the cubeball industry, to bail him out and fund his return to Earth. Their shared past holds betrayals that drove Mickey to leave the industry. After some caveats to lift him out of his destructive drug haze, he forms an unlikely union with business-savvy Riley as his comtech, and Ludwig as his strategist - a savant with an uncanny gift for seeing the perfection of Mickey's game, inspired by his ability to recall the music of Beethoven.Together, Mickey's new team seeks to compete on the world stage, a global industry dominated by Mickey's nemesis - his unscrupulous former manager, Johnnie Draxma. Johnnie is the shadow that dominates Mickey's origins in the game and the betrayal that fuels his destructive habits.Amongst high stakes and an audience of millions, Mickey must battle his own demons and those of his past, as he learns about truth, trust and friendship.
284 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2015
1 person is currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Michael Leon
5 books277 followersMichael Leon, author of ‘Prodigy to Paris’ and ‘Of Salt and Sun’, weaves memoirs, fantasy, fiction and immersive storytelling. His latest works combine family history, cultural exploration, and the transformative power of travel. Professionally trained in international trade, Michael has spent the last decade reading, reviewing and writing SFF novels that explore new and future worlds. His latest novel, Chandelier, is a genre-bending tale of time travel, love lost, grand opera houses and the ghosts that inhabit them. Michael has travelled extensively around Europe, walking the paths of his characters, from the famous European opera houses in Phantoms to the mountain tops of Switzerland in Emissary.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 8, 2016
In a far off future, sports are just as competitive as they are now. Though through technology and synthetic enhancements, competition is much different. Michael is a cubeball champion. The future version of snooker is taken very seriously. After spending time as a world champion and becoming a well known celebrity, Michael has had enough of the life. He takes his wealth and moves to the outpost on Mars. Ten years later, his money dwindling, he has decided to return home to Earth.
This is an interesting sci-fi sports story. The book tends to jump back and forth through time. You get to see how Michael grew up and became a champion cubeball player, while also staying with him in real time as he makes his way through the world. The author has created an interesting world. It is a believable future that is not hard to imagine. The characters are interesting and plausible.
This book does at times fall prey to one of the pitfalls of science fiction writing. There is much time spent on the description of technologies, yet they never fully make sense or capture the attention as much as they could if the specifics were a bit more glossed over so the reader can focus more on the story. Though this was not as bad as it is in many other novels, I was able to get into the story.
Ludwig was the character that actually captured my interest the most in this story. The way the savant was written intrigued me and I enjoyed his interactions with Michael. He was an easier to like character than the often brash Michael. Overall, the story was good and I would consider reading more in this series.
This is an interesting sci-fi sports story. The book tends to jump back and forth through time. You get to see how Michael grew up and became a champion cubeball player, while also staying with him in real time as he makes his way through the world. The author has created an interesting world. It is a believable future that is not hard to imagine. The characters are interesting and plausible.
This book does at times fall prey to one of the pitfalls of science fiction writing. There is much time spent on the description of technologies, yet they never fully make sense or capture the attention as much as they could if the specifics were a bit more glossed over so the reader can focus more on the story. Though this was not as bad as it is in many other novels, I was able to get into the story.
Ludwig was the character that actually captured my interest the most in this story. The way the savant was written intrigued me and I enjoyed his interactions with Michael. He was an easier to like character than the often brash Michael. Overall, the story was good and I would consider reading more in this series.
December 29, 2016
For billions of fans worldwide, Cubeball is the most thrilling sport available in the twenty second century, a fast-paced, high-stakes game combining skill, strategy and luck. Obsessed viewers spend hours watching broadcast matches and fight for tickets to live contests.
For managers, advertisers, gamblers and criminals, Cubeball is big business. Millions of credits are won or lost in a single competition, but that’s just the beginning. Cubeball champions are the rock stars of the era, worshiped and emulated, and their product endorsements are practically priceless.
For Mickey Allen, however, Cubeball is art and passion, a vocation, almost a religion. Mickey has a rare natural gift for the technologically enhanced, three dimensional descendant of billiards. From his earliest years, he has possessed a near-mystical ability to understand the impossibly complex interaction of forces that control the myriad balls and their trajectories. As the sport becomes increasingly influenced by high technology and by performance-boosting drugs and supplements, Mickey continues to play pure Cubeball, relying on his intuition and inner vision.
Ten years before the start of the novel, Mickey fled to Mars after being forced by his corrupt manager Johnnie to throw a championship match. Now, broke and desperate, he has returned to Earth, and to the only thing he really knows or cares about: Cubeball. He struggles against the insidious influence of his former manager, the chilly disdain of his brilliant sister Riley, and his own tendencies toward alcohol and drug addiction. His goals: to reclaim the championship title, make enough money to clear his debts, and set to rest the ghost of Jules, the woman he’d once loved, whom Johnnie had destroyed.
He finds unlikely allies in Ludwig, an autistic savant who sees the Cubeball plays as visual music, and in his rehab therapist Dr. Harry Vance. However, Johnnie is richer, more powerful and more evil than ever, Riley’s loyalties are not clear, and the new generation of top-rated Cubeball players are ten years younger and sharper than Mickey, but just as hungry. If Mickey loses the championship, he will have lost everything.
I am not generally a fan of sports-themed stories, although science fiction is one of my favorite genres. In addition, the first few chapters made it clear to me that Cubeball is no literary masterpiece. The writing is awkward in some places, and I noticed a number of serious editing errors. Nevertheless, this novel hooked me from the start. It’s written with passion, more than skill. Somehow, the author really made me care about Mickey and his quest to recover his life and his self-respect. I raced through the nearly 300 pages of the novel, eager to see how Mickey fared. After all, this is scifi. Happy endings are not required.
Though I never really managed to visualize how Cubeball is played, Mickey’s talent for the game is vividly portrayed and endlessly fascinating. When Ludwig appears in the tale, he complements Mickey’s physical prowess with his transcendental visions of action and reaction. Both Mickey and Ludwig are underdogs, despised by society. There’s a deep satisfaction in seeing them triumph, especially since it’s not an easy process.
Some aspects of Michael Leon’s portrayal of the twenty second century seem like natural extensions of current societal trends. The mass fervor associated with Cubeball is not that different from today’s sports manias. (The rampant commercialism is equally familiar.) Other features of Leon’s world—for instance, the drug-drenched virtualities of the Velvet Underground—struck me as more original and surprising. Ultimately, though, I felt that the futuristic background of the novel was not all that important to its goals. Really, the book is about a man following his dream, overcoming both internal and external obstacles to achieve the success that is his birthright. This is a timeless journey.
I received a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. I am torn between 3 and 4 stars as a rating. The writing gets only 3 starts, but the characterization bumps it up to 4.
For managers, advertisers, gamblers and criminals, Cubeball is big business. Millions of credits are won or lost in a single competition, but that’s just the beginning. Cubeball champions are the rock stars of the era, worshiped and emulated, and their product endorsements are practically priceless.
For Mickey Allen, however, Cubeball is art and passion, a vocation, almost a religion. Mickey has a rare natural gift for the technologically enhanced, three dimensional descendant of billiards. From his earliest years, he has possessed a near-mystical ability to understand the impossibly complex interaction of forces that control the myriad balls and their trajectories. As the sport becomes increasingly influenced by high technology and by performance-boosting drugs and supplements, Mickey continues to play pure Cubeball, relying on his intuition and inner vision.
Ten years before the start of the novel, Mickey fled to Mars after being forced by his corrupt manager Johnnie to throw a championship match. Now, broke and desperate, he has returned to Earth, and to the only thing he really knows or cares about: Cubeball. He struggles against the insidious influence of his former manager, the chilly disdain of his brilliant sister Riley, and his own tendencies toward alcohol and drug addiction. His goals: to reclaim the championship title, make enough money to clear his debts, and set to rest the ghost of Jules, the woman he’d once loved, whom Johnnie had destroyed.
He finds unlikely allies in Ludwig, an autistic savant who sees the Cubeball plays as visual music, and in his rehab therapist Dr. Harry Vance. However, Johnnie is richer, more powerful and more evil than ever, Riley’s loyalties are not clear, and the new generation of top-rated Cubeball players are ten years younger and sharper than Mickey, but just as hungry. If Mickey loses the championship, he will have lost everything.
I am not generally a fan of sports-themed stories, although science fiction is one of my favorite genres. In addition, the first few chapters made it clear to me that Cubeball is no literary masterpiece. The writing is awkward in some places, and I noticed a number of serious editing errors. Nevertheless, this novel hooked me from the start. It’s written with passion, more than skill. Somehow, the author really made me care about Mickey and his quest to recover his life and his self-respect. I raced through the nearly 300 pages of the novel, eager to see how Mickey fared. After all, this is scifi. Happy endings are not required.
Though I never really managed to visualize how Cubeball is played, Mickey’s talent for the game is vividly portrayed and endlessly fascinating. When Ludwig appears in the tale, he complements Mickey’s physical prowess with his transcendental visions of action and reaction. Both Mickey and Ludwig are underdogs, despised by society. There’s a deep satisfaction in seeing them triumph, especially since it’s not an easy process.
Some aspects of Michael Leon’s portrayal of the twenty second century seem like natural extensions of current societal trends. The mass fervor associated with Cubeball is not that different from today’s sports manias. (The rampant commercialism is equally familiar.) Other features of Leon’s world—for instance, the drug-drenched virtualities of the Velvet Underground—struck me as more original and surprising. Ultimately, though, I felt that the futuristic background of the novel was not all that important to its goals. Really, the book is about a man following his dream, overcoming both internal and external obstacles to achieve the success that is his birthright. This is a timeless journey.
I received a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. I am torn between 3 and 4 stars as a rating. The writing gets only 3 starts, but the characterization bumps it up to 4.
November 10, 2015
Michael Leon's new novel, Cubeball creates a vivid and entertaining picture of the future of global sport. He re-invents snooker into a fast-paced, technologically enhanced game that is viewed by massive global audiences. I particularly enjoyed the colourful characters, who seemed to come alive off the page, as they competed in an industry dominated by gambling, rampant technology and drug abuse. One of my favourite books of the year! Christine Lister
November 2, 2015
My newest novel!!! Visit my website at www.michaelleon.com.au to check it out. Thanks!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews