Godspeed

There is no heaven or hell. There is only the next world, a lawless purgatory called “the Presidio.” Populated by the dead, the undead, angels, monsters, and immortals, the Presidio is located a heartbeat away from this world — for those who know how to get there.Ryder Fell, a kindhearted thief cursed with visions of the future, is contracted to kidnap Polly Lee James, a sweet sixteen-year-old orphan who is not what she seems. Polly is an exile from the Presidio, and her kidnapping will take Ryder on a collision course with the twisted denizens of purgatory.Set alternately in modern-day California and the gothic underworld of the Presidio, Godspeed is equal parts dark fantasy and sinister noir, a Paradise Lost for a new generation.

Kirkus Reviews

“An over-the-top Grande Guignol thriller that breaks every rule of fine literature without ever once descending to the lowest denominator….Baer’s sarcasm and occasional (and believable) flashes of humanity keep the depraved goings-on from descending to the cold sadism of a Jack Womack or Burroughs.”

Nashville Scene

“[Baer] assimilates the high diction and sonorous descriptions of Cormac McCarthy with the testosterone-pumped, grimly ironic and often murderously funny Gen X novels of Dave Eggers, Chuck Palahniuk and William T. Vollmann.”

Memphis Flyer

“Baer writes noir like there’s no tomorrow, which is fitting, because it’s something of a shock his sexed-up and/or strung-out characters survive another day.”

From the Publisher

From the author of the acclaimed Phineas Poe trilogy comes a genre-slashing work of dark fantasy, horror, and noir set alternately in end times California and a terrifying underworld purgatory. Pushing the limits of human faith and crash testing the laws of physics Godspeed is Paradise Lost for the new millennium.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"The last time he got down on his knees and asked the Lord in earnest to keep his soul, Ryder Fell had not yet put aside childish things. He asked his maker for the quantum mechanics necessary to throw a curve ball that broke like the guts fell out of it, for the juice he needed to escalate things with the cheerleader next door. He ought to have stopped there, but he was a child. He asked for more. He asked for the shadow skills of invisibility and second sight, the power of time travel. Now he asked for two minutes., the time it took his brother to drown. Two minutes were dead leaves falling against a winter sky. Two minutes were a holiday in hell. Two minutes were all he needed to slog his boulder up that hill. Given two minutes audience with the Lord, he would ask his maker to send him an angel with the strength to pluck out his eyes and relieve him of the dread talent the men of his family called the godspeed "

About the Author

Will Christopher Baer was born in Mississippi in 1966. His short stories have been published in numerous places, notably Nerve and Bomb, and his three Phineas Poe titles were simultaneously re-released in hardcover by MacAdam/Cage in the fall of 2004. He lives in California with his wife and children.

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