Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Cracked.com executive editor Wong (This Book Is Full of Spiders) unabashedly trolls everyone and lampoons everything in this beautifully outrageous science fiction adventure. In a near-future U.S. that’s even more narcissistic and technology-obsessed than the present, Zoey Ashe is a typical down-and-out young woman with an absentee father. She and her cat are more or less content to sleep the day away in their trailer park until a predator-obsessed Internet celebrity decides to stalk and kill her, with a million viewers following along. Zoey is rescued by some confederates of her father (who she learns is dead), which leaves her having to flee from his enemies, but his friends aren’t much better. It seems as though everyone wants something from her, and she isn’t sure what she even wants from herself. She makes it to Tabula Ra$a, a Vegasesque city deep in the Utah desert, where there are no rules and everything goes beyond over-the-top. Staying alive is Zoey’s top priority as she and her sketchy new companions struggle to work out the mystery of her father’s legacy—oh, and save the world from a megalomaniac calling himself Molech. Biting humor and blatant digs at modern society overlay a subtly brilliant and thoughtful plot focused on one young woman’s growth and survival against all odds. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Oct.)