Company Town

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

New Arcadia is a city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd. Hwa is of the few people in New Arcadia to forgo bio-engineered enhancements. As such, she's the last truly organic person left on the rig-making her doubly an outsider, as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire. Still, her expertise in the art of self-defense and her record as a fighter mean that her services are in high demand. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline Meanwhile, a series of interconnected murders threatens the city's stability and heightens the unease of a rig turning over. All signs point to a nearly invisible serial killer, but the murders seem to lead right back to Hwa's front door. Company Town has never been the safest place to be, but now, the danger is personal. A brilliant, twisted mystery, as one woman must evaluate saving the people of a town that can't be saved, or saving herself.

Reviews

A thrilling near-future noir mystery....A fascinating book from a writer with great vision. --Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse Novels series

"Smart, weird dystopia." --Margaret Atwood

The skill with which Ashby introduces her various SF elements is worthy of the best Heinlein.... Company Town never falters in its pacing. It's a terrific ride. --Locus

This is brave, bold, crazy storytelling at the edge and doesn't read like anything else I've seen up or down the pike. --Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of Aftermath

A brilliant and chilling look at our post-oil future. I haven't been this hooked by an SF novel for ages. --Charles Stross, author of the Laundry Files series

Loved Company Town, Madeline Ashby's wonderfully imaginative new sci-fi mystery with a fascinating female protagonist. --Feminist Frequency

The world is an updated version of Raymond Chandler's, with gray morals and broken characters, and Hwa's internal monologue has just the right balance of introspection and wit...[a] very solid page-turner. --Publishers Weekly

A fascinating mix of detective noir and near-future SF with cinematic world building and a broken, but resilient, unquestionably badass heroine. --Booklist

Ashby's action scenes come thick and fast...the ideas, setting and relationships that make the story really worth reading. --New Zealand Herald

Author Bio

Madeline Ashby a science fiction writer, strategic foresight consultant, anime fan, and expat. Her debut series about killer robots included vN and the sequel, iD. Her essays and criticism have appeared at Boing Boing, io9.com, WorldChanging, The Creators Project, Arcfinity, and Tor.com. Since late 2014, she has been a regular columnist for the Ottawa Citizen.