Strange Flesh

Read Strange Flesh Online

Authors: Michael Olson

BOOK: Strange Flesh
11.03Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Advance Praise for
STRANGE FLESH

“If
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
was a titillating introduction to hacker noir, then
Strange Flesh
seduces us into a rocking threesome with it. Blending taut suspense with tech savvy and vigorous prose, Michael Olson shows us a world so salacious, the real one looks flaccid by comparison. This debut tour de force will leave mystery fans flushed, breathless, and begging for more.

—Dustin Thomason, coauthor of the
New York Times
and international bestseller
The Rule of Four

“In his head-spinning literary thriller, Olson takes us down a rabbit hole of kinky cybersex and multilevel mystery. . . . Reads like John Fowles’ The Magus reimagined by William Gibson on a Red Bull bender . . . [a] complex, cutting edge debut.”


Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“Strange Flesh is compelling cyberpunk, filled with plausible cyberwizardry, clever wordplay, murder, betrayal, and heaping helpings of gamer culture and kinky cybersex. Olson skillfully portrays worlds few readers know: quirky computing and robotics geniuses; Harvard’s wealthy, privileged undergraduate royalty; and the surpassingly strange world of online gamers. . . . Crimes, both high and low; bleeding-edge technology; and titillation: What’s not to love?”


Booklist
(starred review)

“Readers can choose their poison in this richly composed slab of transgressive fiction by debut novelist Olson—say, a healthy measure of Neal Stephenson crossed with a slice of Warren Ellis with a serious splash of Nicholson Baker’s sex novels. Crossing the barrier between sex, games and virtual reality, the book is likely to be the only Marquis de Sade-influenced thriller this year. . . . For readers with a penchant for this volatile mix of sex, violence and technology, the payoff is rich indeed.”


Kirkus Reviews

Thank you for purchasing this Simon & Schuster eBook.

 

Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to bonus content, and info on the latest new releases and other great eBooks from Simon & Schuster.

 

 

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

 

 

Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Michael Olson

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition April 2012

SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at
www.simonspeakers.com
.

Designed by Renata Di Biase

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Olson, Michael.

Strange flesh / Michael Olson.—1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.

p. cm.

1. Computer hackers—Fiction. 2. Cyberterrorism—Fiction. 3. Sex toys—

Fiction. I. Title.

PS3615.L75256S77 2012
813’.6 dc22

2011016615

ISBN 978-1-4516-2757-2
ISBN 978-1-4516-2759-6 (ebook)

for my parents

Contents
 

Prologue

Part I: The Jack of Hearts

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Part II: The King of Hearts

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Other books

City of Swords by Mary Hoffman
The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke, Jamie Bulloch
Bad to the Bone by Melody Mayer
Shooting Star (Beautiful Chaos) by Arianne Richmonde
Small Magics by Ilona Andrews
Terra's World by Mitch Benn
The Coming Storm by Valerie Douglas
Out of Step by Maggie Makepeace