The Unnoticeables

Robert Brockway. Tor, $24.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7653-7966-5

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OTHER BOOKS The Empty Ones

Depending on how you look at it, this time-jumping adventure from Cracked senior editor Brockway might be taken as a work of gonzo fiction full of mayhem and weirdness, or as a not-so-subtle satire about the empty consumerism of the Los Angeles celebrity lifestyle, or perhaps a statement on the selling-out of the punk aesthetic. Regardless of the interpretation, one thing is certain: this is an off-kilter, offbeat piece of work. In 1977 New York City, Carey is a burned-out punk trying to get by on a steady diet of booze and music, until he realizes that his friends are vanishing, taken by people with forgettable faces. In Los Angeles 2013, Kaitlyn is a stuntwoman making ends meet as a waitress; she runs afoul of an aggressive, erratic former teen star. Decades apart, Carey and Kaitlyn both discover that their problems stem from angelic beings that either melt the people they target or turn them into unstoppable, soulless shells bent on consuming more victims. Their threads finally come together in an adrenaline-fueled climax that reads like Hunter S. Thompson went drinking with Stephen King. Brockway’s style is raw and over the top, at times too clever and convoluted for its own good, but strangely readable, with unexpected depths. Agent: Sam Morgan, JABberwocky. (July)