Tor's got another free e-book out there available for immediate download. This month's Tor Free Giveaway is Spaceman Blues, by Brian Francis Slattery.
On Slattery's web site, the author lays claim to the professions of "editor, writer, and occasional musician". The editor part includes a specialization in "economics, public policy, and international affairs". As a writer, he has an extensive list of non-fiction and fiction. His music… well, since my blog doesn't really cover music, I'll leave that exploration up to the reader.
Slattery also has postings on Tor's web site: Future Wars and Other Calamities, where he discusses the realities of a Third World War, and When the S in SF Begins with an E, about economics in science fiction worlds. You can see all of Slattery's Tor.com blog postings on his member page.
The Tor site has a post about how they came up with the cover for the book.
So what is Spaceman Blues about? The author has this on his site:
Where is Manuel Rodrigo de Guzman Gonzalez? What is the Church of Panic, whose followers float three inches off the ground? What's really going on under New York City? The answers are a lot bigger than you think they are.
I don't know about you, but that doesn't tell me much about what the book is about. Slattery goes on to list a bunch of links to songs he sang or wrote that represent different parts of the book. Huh?
I'm going out to Amazon to see if I can get the full scoop.
Here's something:
Manuel Rodrigo de Guzmán González disappears, his apartment is consumed by an explosion, and most of the city mourns as though he's dead. The police aren't convinced, and after they question Wendell Apogee, Wendell decides to find out for himself. He doesn't foresee the madhouse things he then proceeds to do—asking questions during a cockfight that gets raided, finding an apocalyptic cult based on valid scientific evidence, going to an underground city in which the best bar is a train car hung from a cavern ceiling. He is changed forever.
OK. That's better. Sounds like urban science fiction, and not altogether as strange as I thought it might be. OK, maybe a little. ;-)
Anyway, it's free, so worth a look if nothing else.