A lovely and pert review here from Kyle Muntz, who reviews on his blog, Variations (On Phase), and who is also a writer/artist. But I’ll let the review speak for itself, which is titled, Quick Words on Digressive Genetics, Evil Capitalists and Mark A. Rayner:

This book surprised me–no, I mean it really surprised me. In the first chapter, monkeys and a Kimono dragon crash a wedding, send an old lady to the hospital, and generally succeed in making you laugh very, very hard.

This is a whole new kind of Crossing Chaos novel. Even more than Vital Fluid, it forgoes elaborate textual mechanics, but still succeeds in telling a complex, dynamic story: an organic one. (The aesthetic text is many things, but let me just say, it is not natural). Some really interesting concepts make their way in there as well; and like I said, it’s very, very funny.

Read the full review here!

What do you know, another complimentary review of my first novel!

What I love about this review is the great thumbnails Hayden draws of the various characters:

The other characters had compelling stories and I loved how many of their stories were wrapped around Mozart’s. We have Bella, the psychopathic artist, born after the Shudder who grew up with her survivalist father. She’s beautiful, twisted, insane, and completely devoted to her art. There’s Les, the boring Canadian diplomat with an obsession for Helen Printo, a self-serving investigative reporter who will stop at nothing to get a story. She’s “friendly” with Alex Burton, a cruel, former black-ops solider who is desperate to get the funds together for an upcoming trip into outer space. He’s got plans to sell Mozart to the highest bidder. Oh, and we can’t forget Katerina, the beautiful Czech woman Mozart has found himself in love with. Did I mention she’s a lesbian? Or that she’s half in love with Helen Printo, and half in lust with Bella?

I also love that the book raises questions for her. You can read the whole thing here.

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There’s a new review of The Amadeus Net available, and it’s another nice one. It was reviewed by Janet Paszkowski at Flash Me Magazine, which published one of my flash fictions a few years ago. Here’s a snip:

“Strange? Yes. Implausible? No, because Rayner successfully crafts an inherent logic into his surreal story with a collage of plausible first-person narratives, which includes the first-person ‘thinking machine’ narrative of the actual setting of the story—the post-apocalyptic, utopian city-state of Ipolis, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

“Furthermore, Rayner’s flair for sustained humor, and compelling story telling enhances the preposterous premises, characterizations, and worthy themes of art, love, and the search for self-identity and sex in the day-to-day existence of an eclectic cast of characters making their way through the end of the world.”

You can find the whole thing at Flash Me, but you’ll have to sign up for a subscription to get it — at $3/issue or $8/year (four issues), a great value.