The Amadeus Net -- coverThe Amadeus Net

published by ENC Press

"a comic dance in a post-apocalyptic utopia."

--Deb Hamel, Book Blog

"a story that makes you think and laugh ... a hidden treasure"

--Corey Redekop, Amazon Top 100 Reviewer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart walks into the sex change clinic, determined to have his “sprouter” snipped off. So begins The Amadeus Net, a satirical novel that explores art, love, and identity at the end of the world.

The year is 2028. For more than two centuries, the one-time wunderkind has kept his existence secret while he tried to understand his immortality. Living in style through funds raised by selling “lost” Mozart works, he has also helped to create Ipolis, a utopian city-state, after the cataclysmic Shudder, a global disaster caused by an asteroid strike in 2015.

But a few complications mar Mozart’s perfect world. The woman he loves is a lesbian, which, paradoxically, makes him forget about his sex-change plans. The world’s greatest reporter knows he’s still alive and will stop at nothing to expose him. The stakes are higher than he knows, because if the reporter finds him, so will the spy planning to sell Mozart’s DNA to the highest bidder. Oh, and, by the way, the world might end in seven days.

Mozart's only allies are a psychotic American artist, a bland Canadian diplomat, and the city itself: a sapient, thinking machine that is screwing up as only a sapient, thinking machine can.

Read an excerpt of the first chapter..>
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Read an excerpt of the fourth chapter...>

Mozart at the pianoOrders:

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US Orders: directly from ENC PRESS

Canadian Orders: from the Ontario Library Association store.

 

More about the book:

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Reviews:

“…the book is well-written, and once one gets into the meat of the story its principals are interesting enough to keep readers’ attention. Perhaps most likeable is the character of Ipolis itself, whose benevolent governance of its residents includes shielding them from incoming missiles, controlling the weather, and spiking the water supply of intimate couples with birth-control drugs unless they’re actively trying to reproduce. The Amadeus Net is not the sort of book that you won’t be able to put down, but you’ll definitely want to pick it up again once you do.”
--Meg Hamel, Book Blog

whole review..>

“The Amadeus Net, the debut novel from [Canadian author Mark A.] Rayner, is a bizarre, often hilarious piece of futuristic satire. With an imagination reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, a satirical bent a la Tom Robbins, and a sense of humour derived equally from episodes of The Goon Show and the literature of Neal Stephenson, The Amadeus Net is an offbeat and wonderfully droll exercise in sustained amusement...

“At a time when the bestseller lists are dominated by the continuous, unenthusiastic, and barely literate conspiracy ramblings of a Hardy Boys wannabe, a story that makes you think and laugh is almost a hidden treasure. The Amadeus Net is a wonderful first novel, thoughtful and engaging. To close on the hopeful words of Mozart himself, ‘Everyone laugh! Fart, and laugh! Then compose something beautiful.’” — Corey Redekop, Author, Shelf Monkey

whole review...>

“The Amadeus Net is an interesting mix of tones; some of the book is in a jokey mode that sometimes happens in science fiction, and some of the book has a quite serious intent to it. The title refers to the fact that the main character is Mozart, alive and well in 2038 after nearly 300 years of life.”
--James Schellenberg, BiblioTravel

whole review ..>

Locus Online ..>