Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat [Paperback]

Andrez Bergen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2011

Cut to Melbourne, Australia--the most glamorous city in the world. It also happens to be the only one left standing, but nevermind that, we're there now and I'd like you to meet your narrator, a certain Floyd Maquina, a likable chap with one hell of a story to share. See, the powers that be are knuckling down on the Deviant menace that plagues the city, and our boy Floyd's unknowingly got himself in the thick of it. Cue guns, intrigue, kidnappings, conspiracy and all sorts of general mayhem that make for cracking good headlines. Does Floyd stop the bad guys? Does he get the girl? Does he make Humphrey Bogart proud? Grab some popcorn and read on.

Product Details

• Paperback: 234 pages
• Publisher: another sky press (April 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0984559701
• ISBN-13: 978-0984559701
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,334,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrez Bergen is an expat Australian writer, journalist, DJ, photographer and ad hoc beer and saké connoisseur who's been entrenched in Tokyo, Japan, for the past 11 years.

He published noir/sci-fi novel 'Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat' in 2011 and the surreal fantasy 'One Hundred Years of Vicissitude' through Perfect Edge Books in 2012.

In 2013 look out for 'The Condimental Op' (a collection of short stories, comics and articles on music and Japan) and Bergen's next novel, the comic book/noir 'Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?', both through Perfect Edge.

Bergen has published short stories through Crime Factory, Shotgun Honey, Snubnose Press, 'Pulp Ink 2', Another Sky Press and Solarcide, and worked on translating and adapting the scripts for feature films by Mamoru Oshii, Kazuchika Kise and Naoyoshi Shiotani.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent noir Dick-esque tale February 1, 2012

By Christopher Knight

Format:Paperback

So I've been reading the collected works of Philip K. Dick in chronological order, just finished Flow My Tears...so much more to go!

I happened to pick this book off my shelf because I love Scott C.'s artwork and thought "what the heck, time for a little reading on the side while I wait for Confessions of a Crap Artist to arrive by USPS". I have to say, I am amazed at how well this fits the Dick style of surreal reality mind-screw with the amazing character development and deep philosophical questions.

Only quibble are the cultural references (movie/tv/etc) that feel a little like stumbling blocks as I reach the midpoint of the book.

FYI you can get the epub book for free (love the business model!) but I bought the paperback because I am happy to support the author and publisher and because, of course, I wanted a nice copy of Scott C.'s wonderful cover artwork.

If you're a fan of PkD, definitely pick this book up. I am betting you will find it as enjoyable and relatable as I do!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Detective-Noir Story meets Post-Apocolyptic Hell. January 22, 2012

By The Kindle Book Review

Format:Paperback

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Wow. At the beginning, I was having a bit of trouble trying to orient myself with this nasty, rainy, harsh environment. But then, the story came more into focus, and the characters started coming alive. Jumping from real world to the virtual tests confused me a little bit, but as they seemed to really screw with the poor Seekers taking them, too, I just kinda rolled with it.

I really felt for Floyd in spite of his drunken existance. I hurt for him, I was angry for him, I was right along with him as he started to reach out for loved ones as they started slipping away, family and friends alike. I am fairly young and didn't find myself struggling to figure out the film references (but maybe I'm just a nerd, who knows?) and enjoyed the mixture of languages (which I also didn't need the reference guides for, but appreciated that they were there). The guides at the end were fun for me to read, because I felt Mr. Bergen was conscientious about his readers and wanted his story to be accessible to people of many cultures. I also liked that although the story was set in Australia, Australians weren't the only culture left on the planet.

Floyd is admirably tough and lovable, which takes some strength in a world where people get snatched away for no good reasons thanks to corporate greed and politics. He manages to pull himself from a helpless position in his world to a position of power to try and save people he cares about as well as society in general... at least, whatever's left of it, soggy with acid rain and scarred by stuggling to grow in a dying world. What's scary, though, is that aside from just a little bit of futuristic cosmetic surgery and a few other things, you could look around at the current global climate and see this mess be a real possibility.

That gives me just enough of a spine-chill to hope certain company executives never read this tale, and that humanity hasn't been consumerized into (near) extinction just yet.

--Katherine X, Kindle Book Review.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Creative, engaging, and wonderfully unique December 14, 2011

By Elizabeth A. White

Format:Paperback

Andrez Bergen's Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat (TSMG) is set in a post-apocalyptic Melbourne, Australia at an unspecified point in the future where the fortunate ones live an opulent life secure under the high tech Dome which encases the city. The less fortunate live a harsh existence in rundown areas on the outskirts of the Dome in a world where the sun seldom shines and acid rain seems to fall endlessly.

Our narrator, Floyd Maquina, is a Seeker. Employed by the government to hunt down so-called Deviants for what is euphemistically called "hospitalization," Floyd has the authority to terminate those who won't come along peacefully. It's something he's only had to do once, but that encounter weighs heavily on his mind, driving him to seek comfort in drugs, alcohol, and classic Hollywood films.

Indeed, Floyd peppers his narrative with copious references to films like The Maltese Falcon, The Third Man, The Big Sleep, and Brazil amongst others, and throws enough hardboiled slang around that a Tobacco-Stained Glossary and Encyclopedia Tobacciana are included as appendices.

With one foot planted firmly in a futuristic world where Seekers routinely undergo Matrix-like virtual reality "tests" to ensure they are still in the fold and capable of carrying out company orders, TSMG manages to simultaneously have its other foot rooted in an authentic, throwback, hardboiled detective vibe. And it is in that fuzzy blending of post-apocalyptic and old-school noir that TSMG carves out what is one of the most wonderfully unique books I've had the pleasure to read.

Along the way author Andrez Bergen works in clever jabs and astute commentary on everything from reality shows (Floyd finds himself an unwitting TV star when thrust front and center in a Dog the Bounty Hunter type show) to media manipulation by corporations and the government (that "reality" show being a carefully scripted and edited attempt to control public opinion about Deviants) to our obsession with cosmetic perfection (people in TSMG routinely get surgical enhancement, including photosynthetic technology which allows them to swap out lip, eye, skin and hair color with thousands of available shades), while the conflict between the Deviants and the citizens inside the Dome serves as a rather timely exploration of the social upheaval that results when the economic gulf between classes becomes a seemingly unbridgeable chasm.

TSMG is not for everyone, there's no way around that. Some will find the film references too frequent and, if you're not familiar with the movies, potentially confusing. But if you're willing to roll with them - or to put the handy Encyclopedia Tobacciana to good use - I think you'll find they actually add a verisimilitude to Floyd's character, going a long way toward explaining how he copes and makes his way through a world he often finds as foreign as the reader does.

In any event, I can say without qualification that not only is Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat one of my Top 5 reads of 2011, it is one of the most creative and engaging books I've ever read. Period.