The Body scout : a novel / Lincoln Michel.

Select an Action

Title:

Author:

Michel, Lincoln

ISBN:

9780316628723

Edition:

First Edition.

Physical Description:

356 pages

Abstract:

"Kobo has some problems. His cybernetics are a decade out of date, he's got a pair of twin sister loan sharks knocking on his door, and his work scouting for a baseball league run by pharmaceutical companies is about to go belly-up. Things couldn't get much worse. Then his childhood best friend--Monsanto Mets slugger J.J. Zunz--is murdered at home plate. Determined to find the killer, Kobo plunges into the dark corners and glittering cloud condos of a world ravaged by climate change and repeat pandemics,and where genetic editing and advanced drugs mean you can have any body you want--as long as you can afford it. But even among the philosophical Neanderthals, zootech weapons, and genetically modified CEOs, there's a curveball he never could have called"-- Provided by publisher.

Subject Term:

Baseball scouts -- Fiction.

Cyborgs -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Genetic engineering -- Fiction.

Genre:

Detective and mystery stories.

Science fiction.

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library	Adult Science Fiction/Fantasy Fiction Book Hardback	120791002920609	F MIC	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In this "timeless and original" sci-fi thriller ( New York Times ), a hardboiled baseball scout must solve the murder of his brother in a world transformed by body modification, perfect for readers of William Gibson and Max Barry.

An Esquire Pick for the Top 50 Sci-Fi Books of All Time

A New York Times Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novel of 2021

"A breathlessly paced techno-thriller characterized by stunning, spiky worldbuilding." -- Esquire

In the future you can have any body you want--as long as you can afford it.

But in a New York ravaged by climate change and repeat pandemics, Kobo is barely scraping by. He scouts the latest in gene-edited talent for Big Pharma-owned baseball teams, but his own cybernetics are a decade out of date and twin sister loan sharks are banging down his door. Things couldn't get much worse.

Then his brother--Monsanto Mets slugger J.J. Zunz--is murdered at home plate.

Determined to find the killer, Kobo plunges into a world of genetically modified CEOs, philosophical Neanderthals, and back-alley body modification, only to quickly find he's in a game far bigger and more corrupt than he imagined. To keep himself together while the world is falling apart, he'll have to navigate a time where both body and soul are sold to the highest bidder.

Diamond-sharp and savagely wry, The Body Scout is a timely science fiction thriller debut set in an all-too-possible future.

"I devoured it." --Jonathan Lethem

"Completely weird and still completely real. Delightful--I couldn't put it down."--Shea Serrano

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Michel's brisk, entertaining debut weaves familiar cyberpunk tropes through a gritty, near-future world of corporate greed and pro baseball. As young boys growing up in the bleak underground warrens of a New York City partly submerged due to climate change, Kobo and his best friend, JJ Zunz, dreamed of playing ball in the big leagues. Kobo washed out of the now-defunct Cyber League and became a talent scout for the pros, though the sport is now controlled by Big Pharma, whose cutting-edge drug blends fuel the top players. Zunz, on the other hand, had the skills and luck to become a star hitter for the Monsanto Mets--until he drops dead on the field during a playoff game. Was it poison or a careless overdose? Kobo's determined to find the truth, and his investigation plunges him deep into a web of corporate politics, intrigue, and cutthroat shenanigans. The plot moves fast and features well-wrought if expected worldbuilding details, including floating billboards, advanced drug and gene therapies, cybernetic rebuilds, obnoxious and über-wealthy CEOs, and ecological collapse. Readers won't need to be baseball fans to enjoy this gripping ride. (Sept.)

Kirkus Review

In a future where body hackers and bio-genetic juicers are at cross purposes, a brother mourning his baseball-playing sibling tries to even the odds. Take the real-life biohacking aesthetics in self-described "future-y reporter" Kara Platoni's We Have the Technology (2015) and the plethora of books about the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR (an acronym for extreme gene-modification technologies too complicated to explain in short order) and apply them to a weird and hopefully not prescient techno-thriller and you have a cocktail that's one part William Gibson, one part Cory Doctorow, and a dash of generic but propulsive future noir. Our narrator, Kobo, is pretty much a bionic man with implants, new organs, and lots of cybernetic upgrades, none of which mean that much for his job as a scout for whatever Major League Baseball has morphed into. Living in the shadow of his adopted brother, JJ Zunz, the superjuiced star slugger for the "Monsanto Mets," Kobo is doing his best. "Baseball was a nasty business," he admits. "I told myself all the usual things. How it would be some other asshole doing the job if it wasn't me." When his brother dies on the field of some mysterious engineered illness, Kobo turns detective, diving into the dark ends of this future landscape to find a little truth. Like most cyberpunk that evolved over the past decades, it's weird and sometimes gross and endlessly fascinating. In Michel's version of the future, Neanderthals have been resurrected, cloning is routine, and playing a private dick gains all kinds of unwanted attention for Kobo, not least from Dereck T. Mouth, the malevolent owner of the Mets. Did we mention that Kobo owes millions in debt for his miraculous modifications to his medical-loan company, which badly wants its money back? It's a dizzying world but catnip for cyberpunk fans. How do you navigate a world in which everyone is altered? In this scenario, everyone and everything might be Chekhov's gun. Everybody duck. A fun-to-read addition to the cyberpunk canon. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Baseball player J. J. Zunz drops dead--murdered, apparently, during a game. At almost exactly the same moment, Zunz's brother Kobo, a baseball scout, is muscled out of a big acquisition; soon after, he's fired from the team. Suspecting his brother's murder has something to do with the game, Kobo goes to great and potentially self-destructive lengths to find out who's responsible. Having a baseball scout as an amateur sleuth makes the novel interesting; its near-future setting makes it special. Kobo lives in a world in which baseball teams are named for their corporate owners (the Monsanto Mets; the California Human Potential Growth Corp Dodgers); where most automobile traffic is now airbor where cloned Neanderthals are, if not commonplace, at least unremarkab and where most people have augmented their bodies either with biopharmaceuticals or cybernetics. Author Michel, a noted short-story writer (he's won a Pushcart Prize), makes his long-form debut here, and a spectacularly successful debut it is. Great entertainment for any reader on the mystery/science-fiction spectrum.