Noise: A Novel [Paperback]

Darin Bradley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2010

This haunting debut from a brilliant new voice is sure to be as captivating as it is controversial, a shocking look at the imminent collapse of American civilization—and what will succeed it.
 
In the aftermath of the switch from analog to digital TV, an anarchic movement known as Salvage hijacks the unused airwaves. Mixed in with the static’s random noise are dire warnings of the imminent economic, political, and social collapse of civilization—and cold-blooded lessons on how to survive the fall and prosper in the harsh new order that will inevitably arise from the ashes of the old.

Hiram and Levi are two young men, former Scouts and veterans of countless Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. Now, on the blood-drenched battlefields of university campuses, shopping malls, and gated communities, they will find themselves taking on new identities and new moralities as they lead a ragtag band of hackers and misfits to an all-but-mythical place called Amaranth, where a fragile future waits to be born.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Media studies professor Bradley crafts an exceptionally polished debut, carefully negotiating the balance between inspiration and story. In the small university town of Slade, Tex., two college friends are inspired by the cryptic messages that various malcontents broadcast via graffiti and the abandoned analog airwaves. Pseudonymous "Hiram" and "Levi" decide to write their own survival manifesto based on The Book, a survival narrative that encourages its readers to spell out a story and set of rules that attempt to justify the actions they take in a society without traditional boundaries, rules, or structures. When the chaos of the unspecified Event hits, Hiram and Levi implement their plan and use skills learned from the Boy Scouts, D&D, and mythology to improve their odds of survival as they collect companions and head for their chosen haven. Falling somewhere between The Lord of the Flies and The Zombie Survival Guide, this dystopian ditty will generate passionate readership and spirited "what would you do?" conversations.
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Review

A Best Book of 2010: Fiction selection --January Magazine

2010 Recommended Reading List -- Locus Magazine

Favorite Books of 2010 -- Bookreporter


"An exceptionally polished debut...Falling somewhere between The Lord of the Flies and The Zombie Survival Guide, this dystopian ditty will generate passionate readership and spirited "what would you do?" conversations." –Publishers Weekly

"Story edged as a katana, prose tight as the grip that wields it, Noise is keen in its purpose and most ‘incisive.' Shorn of false sentiment and trite cynicism, it paints an all too plausible apocalypse, and paints it in bold fresh terms. This is a great new take on its genre and an exemplary work in its own right." --Hal Duncan, author of Ink and Vellum

"Darin Bradley's brainy, slippery, and riveting Noise is Lord of the Flies on serious psychotropics. With narrative tendrils in the "paper" book and online as well, Noise is deliberately speaking to a young, media-soaked audience through various texts and tricks. You watch.  Noise is destined to be a milestone work for Millennial readers." --Barth Anderson, author of The Patron Saint of Plagues

"Noise is not a thick book, so the dense layering and compelling characterizations will surprise you all the more. It’s unexpected. And given Bradley’s dark view and haunting prose, it’s even possible you won’t like Noise. But it is not possible that you will forget it." --January Magazine

“I…read Noise by Darin Bradley and was completely blown away…This book has power.”  –Tor.com

“Edgy and disturbing, Noise is a worthy successor to all those post-holocaust books of yesteryear.” –Analog

"You want this book...It’s the kind of book that leaves you breathless haunted and in awe. It makes me think of Little Brother meets Lord of the Flies meets Heart of Darkness meets Mad Max and the Road Warrior meets Letham. It’s a ride, fast and sure, and even though it seems like a YA dystopian novel, like another Hunger Games or...Battle Royale, he takes it and makes it so unique, so different, so blood curdling awesome. And he does that one thing all real interesting and smart genre writers try to do and fail miserably over and over and over again--he combines literary feats of philosophical inquiry and metafictional prowess with the steady rhythm and accessibility of a powerful fast read of a gut punch of a novel. In other words--you want this book." –Paul Jessup

“Nobody reads books because they know if the heroes live or die or because they know it has a happy or a sad ending. We read books because someone says, in one way or another, 'This is a good book. You should read it.'  Noise is a good book. You should read it.” –A Terrible Idea

“What sets this one apart from others of this ilk are (a) its unusual premise and (b) the narrative skill of the author…[a] riveting and jarring debut novel.” –Book Loons

"Compellingly told...a fascinating character study of how a pair of suburban boys try to transform themselves into the kind of people who can survive and thrive in an apocalypse and post-collapse world." –21st Century Geeks

“Darin Bradley’s Noise is a small juggernaut of dystopian lit.  It’s Lord of the Flies ala some Philip K. Dick mindbend.  It’s arty and smart and unique.” –Pulp 300 blog
 
“[Noise is] distressing and smart and I can't get it out of my head.” –Mumble Herder blog

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Spectra (August 31, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553386220
• ISBN-13: 978-0553386226
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Darin Bradley has taught courses on writing and literature at the University of North Texas, Furman University, and East Tennessee State University. His short fiction, poetry, and critical nonfiction have appeared in a variety of journals, and he served as founding fiction editor of the experimental e-zine, Farrago's Wainscot. He lives with his wife in Texas, where he works as a full-time writer for id software.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different sort of "Apocalypse Soon", October 6, 2010

By 

W. V. Buckley (Kansas City, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Noise: A Novel (Kindle Edition)

If you're looking for an end-of-the-world thriller, better pass on Noise and pick up a copy of The Passage or The Stand. But if you're looking for a thoughtful meditation on what might happen if the social systems that provide a sense of meaning and security were to disappear, then by all means read Darin Bradley's Noise.

My reaction to the story went from intrigued to annoyed to baffled and finally to amazed. All that in less than 250 pages. The story begins with two college friends in Texas tuning in to Salvage, a sort of pirate broadcasting system that has taken over the old, unused analog television channels. It seems as though the channel draws conspiracy theorists of all stripes as both 'casters and viewers. But one day the dire predictions made on Salvage begin to come true. The details are scant (something many readers will find irksome) but soon there are runs on banks, riots, looting, civil disorder and the general breakdown of the slim threads that bind society together.

Forewarned by Salvage and armed with homemade swords and the Book (OK, a second point of annoyance: the Book tends to capitalize concepts like Narrative and Place through the story) Hiram and Levi and a handful of others prepare to set out for their Group's Place ... Amaranth, named for the Underworld's eternal flower of forgetfulness. Along the way the Group encounters violence and death in many forms. Following the teachings of the Book, when that violence and death is dealt by members of the Group, it's reinforced with a phrase that becomes a desperate post-apocalyptic mantra: "What you did was right."

The Book itself makes up a big part of Noise. Just about every chapter ends with a list of instructions from the Book. At first the Book seems to be little more than random thoughts from right-wing survivalist manuals and left-wing primers on revolution. But as the story progresses and the Group struggles toward its Place, thoughtful readers will find themselves carrying on interior dialogues with themselves over the real meaning of the Book within the book.

By the time the story is over, most readers will find themselves wondering "what if ..." That is likely the end result Bradley was aiming for. Just about any book can entertain a reader, but it takes a special one to make that reader think.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Book at the Beginning of the Apocalypse, August 31, 2010

By 

B. Henderson (Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Noise: A Novel (Paperback)

Let me tell you what Darin Bradley has achieved with Noise.

He's taken an Event, perhaps socio-political, definitely economic, in its scope and placed a pair of friends, Hiram and Levi, in medias res in their small Texas town. See, they've seen the writing on the walls--the wildstyle tagging along with the hacked analog transmission from the nebulous collective known as Salvage Country--and realized this is the End, friends. With a small band armed with information, weapons, and new names, they know it's time to make it to Amaranth, their quasi-mythical retreat.

See, it's all about your Group having a Place. So says the Book. Darin has managed to weave the get-out-of-Dodge narrative for Hiram et. al an with apropos sections of the Book, the bible at the beginning of the end. Bradley has waxed meta with Book in situ, giving the audience a chance to following along with Hiram's Group as they leave their apartments, cross town, and find their Place in a world in breakdown mode--all with the Book as artifact. The narrative is further interspersed with flashbacks of Hiram's childhood, and the particularly resonant ones were of the Boy Scouting days, the leadership skills acquired and, perhaps, taken for granted until the young adult Hiram falls back on those selfsame skills and more.

No one is who they seem, either, among the major players. They've taken new names, new identities forged as they create a new Place in this new and broken world. Anyone's skills belong to the Group; the person becomes the new economy. The old world is dying, and no one--no one--speaks their old names or of their old lives.

The pacing is quick, maybe quicker than one might expect in a multilayered narrative such as Noise presents. However, Darin has more than made up for it with an understanding that clean prose and lyrical prose need not be padded prose. As far as characterization is concerned, you might have known a Hiram or a Levi. You might have played D& D and rolled some D20's with them.

But you probably never had to see them roll the hard six and run someone through with a sword or shoot them in the face.

Noise isn't about a ragtag band of survivors holing up and waiting it out. It's about the exodus, the egress from Eden and the concomitant Fall. It's about the subsuming of personal identity into the usefulness and forward progress of the group's identity. It's about letting your past drown in a pond. Your Orphean descent into the Underworld. Your Amaranth where you will put down new roots in a faraway place.

Darin gives the reader plenty of explode-y action and up-close-and-personal scenes one might expect of an apocalyptic novel, but one thing's for certain: the characters are the heart of this book, and after reading Noise, don't be surprised to find yourself echoing a mantra of the Group in Noise:

"You did the right thing."

Here's hoping this is the first of many sharp, smart, resonant novels from Darin Bradley.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining futuristic cautionary thriller, September 3, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Noise: A Novel (Paperback)

When the country converts from analog to digital, Salvage broadcasts underground stations in the lower frequency airwaves. It tells the populace what to do to survive in the face of the collapsing society and the words are bound in the Book. In the college town of Slade, Texas, best friends Hiram and Adam collect the wisdom of the Salvage so they can be ready when the collapse of American civilization occurs.

The predicted Event happens leaving America rudderless as the country declares bankruptcy and the government loses all control. The Narrator calls himself Hiram and Adam renames himself Levi. They gather other people amongst the homeless of the dead society to go to Amaranth. It is an isolated place where they will be safe. Other groups join them on the bloody journey to the Promised Land.

Reminiscent of the Lord of the Flies merged with Deliverance, Noise is a deep look at civilization spinning out of control into anarchy before leading to a rebirth. The cast is solid with plenty of violence and gore. This makes the aftermath effort to get to Amaranth feel plausible. Darin Bradley writes an entertaining futuristic cautionary thriller as out of the death of America rises the Phoenix of a new order.

Harriet Klausner