Normal

September 5, 2016
Adam Dearden, the hero of this fascinating near-future thriller from Ellis (Gun Machine), is one of the people monitoring an intricate worldwide
surveillance system as part of an effort to save the world from a looming cataclysm that could bring financial ruin. When Adam suffers a breakdown while attending a conference in Rotterdam, he’s taken to Normal Head, an asylum in Oregon. The next morning, awakened by loud banging, he leaves his room and sees orderlies in an uproar. Another inmate, Mr. Mansfield, is missing from his room, his bed covered with a couple hundred pounds of bugs. There’s no evidence on the surveillance tapes of Mr. Mansfield leaving or being taken from his room, which was locked with its windows sealed. The institute is put into lockdown with all Internet connections severed. Though all inmates and staff are suspects, Adam, as the new arrival, is the primary one. Readers will root for Adam as he struggles to discover what is actually going on in Normal, who is to be trusted, and what happened to Mansfield.

Humorist and former "Daily Show" correspondent John Hodgman narrates the latest techno-dystopian thriller by Warren Ellis. Adam Dearden has been admitted to Normal Head Research Station, a secluded rehab facility for futurists and intellectuals who've suffered mental breakdowns. After Adam's arrival, another patient mysteriously vanishes, leaving behind only a mass of writing insects. Amid the threat of a complete lockdown, Adam and his fellow patients investigate the disappearance themselves. Hodgman grabs listeners with the surreal opening line--"Hand over the entire Internet now and nobody gets hurt"--and infuses an appropriate blend of sarcasm and bemusement throughout. It's not all played for laughs, though. Hodgman also captures the sinister atmosphere bubbling just below the surface. A.T.N. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine