Accelerate

by Brendan C. Byrne, Mike Hoffman (Illustrator)

Joam was a hotshit courier in a Los Angeles falling apart, where you lived or died by your reaction time behind the wheel. Problem Number 1: A freelance courier was an easy target. If the raging wildfires didn't get you, then the motorized criminal gangs would, and if they didn't get you, then the militias would for sure. And don't forget the bats. Those goddamn bats... Joam was the best, but the best wasn't good enough. Eventually, he knew, he'd just be a splat on the pavement, frying in the 120 degree sun. Problem Number 2: Automation and civil disturbance and a flat-lined economy had pretty much killed the job market. You either drove or you begged or you stole. Those were your options, shitty as they were. So instead of getting out, Joam decided to go in. Further inside the car than anyone had ever gone before. Electing for experimental vehicle-integration surgery, Joam is merged with his ride. Now Joam's not only the fastest, most feared courier in he's a fucking legend. The man who never gets out of the car. Problem Number 3: The experimental surgery was experimental. Joam's body is falling apart. Pretty soon he'll just be consciousness trapped within a machine. Working forever and ever and ever, just to pay the gas bill. That's no kind of damn life. Joam wants to feel the sun again on his face one last time. He'll kill for it. Hell, he'll die for it. And then he gets an offer from an enigmatic drive a mysterious black box across the former United States to the Statue of Liberty. The Joam'll be removed from his car, made whole again. Human again. Problem Number 4: The United States don't work no more. It's fallen the fuck apart, home to warring militias, AI-run citystates, and extreme storms. And then there's another driver, more legendary than even Joam, who'll be on his ass the whole way... Only one thing to do...ACCELERATE"Accelerate comes at us full-tilt, in unexpected side directions but ultimately head-on. Reads like ‘80s cyberpunk, the real quill, but even faster. Highly recommended!"—Jack Womack, author of Random Acts of Senseless Violence"Like a post-collapse, body horror reinvention of The Fast and The Furious, Byrne’s Accelerate hurtles straight into the heart of the American dream—endless freeways and hermetically sealed automobiles. Breathless and exhilarating..."—Tim Maughan, author of Infinite Detail and Ghost Hardware"Like a post-cyberpunk Vanishing Point, wicked smart and perfectly tuned, this little book delivers the goods."— Christopher Brown, Campbell and World Fantasy Award-nominated author of Tropic of Kansas and Rule of Capture"Accelerate is a killer read, a hypnotic stumble off the roof of our future. Think Mad Max by James Joyce."—Rudy Rucker, author of the Ware Tetralogy.About the authorBrendan C. Byrne writes fiction for places like Big Echo and Terraform, criticism for places like Rhizome and Filmmaker Magazine. His novella The Training Commission, co-written with Ingrid Burrington, appeared in 2019.

118 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 9, 2021

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Widescreen version" with illustrations by Tomislav Tikulin. pretty cool!