‘Maxine’ is Unleashed!
Writing my new noir/sci-fi novel meant having to stay wilder than reality.
I spent four years working on “Maxine Unleashes Doomsday,” my new noir/sci-fi novel from Down & Out Books. That wasn’t continuous, of course; it began life as a short story in 2014, but the character of Maxine kept talking to me, so I kept bolting on chapters in fits and starts. And during the revision process, I ended up having to go back and tweak my world-building over and over again, because starting in 2016 or so, real life started getting a lot weirder and wilder than what I was presenting in the book.
Overall, I’m happy with the results. The book explores everything from the psychological effects of poverty to what would happen if an A.I. were to burst into the real world. It’s a combination of the gritty and mundane with the high-tech and sublime. Plus, I think I wrote some pretty kickass action scenes. The actual release date is Nov. 4, but pre-orders are now up on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all the usual paper/digital platforms.
Here’s the full summary for ya, plus some praise from a couple of highfalutin’ authors I was honored to corner for a blurb:
The United States has collapsed. Bandits stalk the highways, preying on the weak and unaware.
In order to transport goods between heavily fortified cities, companies hire convoy escorts. Maxine is the best of these new road warriors: tough, smart, and unbelievably fast. But she also has a secret: She’s the niece of New York’s most notorious outlaw, a man hunted by what’s left of the nation’s law enforcement.
Maxine wants to live a normal, upstanding life. But a bad incident on the road leaves her mauled, penniless…and fired. If she wants to survive, she’s going to need to embrace her outlaw roots — and carry off the biggest heist that the post-apocalypse has ever seen. It’s a journey that will take her through obstacle after obstacle to the edge of death itself — and beyond.
Maxine Unleashes Doomsday smashes the gritty frenzy of Mad Max: Fury Road with the top-notch suspense of a crime saga like Heat. It’s a brutal thriller that offers a terrifying glimpse of our future.
Praise for MAXINE UNLEASHES DOOMSDAY:
“Take one of Richard Stark’s Parker novels and throw it in the blender with DVDs of Mad Max and The Warriors. Guess what? You just broke your blender. Find solace in this book, which is what you should have done in the first place.” — Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse and New Yorked
“Maxine Unleashes Doomsday rolls in with bang-up premise and keeps on punching. This is a trip into the far future and then the near future, where the oceans have swallowed up the coasts, the United States has fractured, and people like Maxine are left in the dust. But Maxine is tough and she’s got no patience for any crap and she will survive…one way or another. Filled with a terrific carnival cast of characters, cracker-jack scenes, and Kolakowski’s witty prose, Maxine Unleashes Doomsday is a fantastic read and definitely well worth your time.” — Jen Conley, author of Seven Ways to Get Rid of Harry and Cannibals: Stories from the Edge of the Pine Barrens
“Loaded with savvy world-building, memorable characters and precise, sharp plotting, I devoured Nick Kolakowski’s latest. The post-apocalyptic and wonderfully bonkers Maxine Unleashes Doomsday will keep you turning pages at a breakneck pace.” — Alex Segura, author of Blackout and Dangerous Ends
“I don’t know which is more terrifying: how wildly inventive this book is, or how close this fractured world is to ours. In Maxine Unleashes Doomsday, Kolakowski gives us the hero we need for the apocalypse we deserve.” — Nik Korpon, author of Wear Your Home Like a Scar and Old Ghosts
“If George Miller (Mad Max) and Sol Yurick (The Warriors) had a bastard kid, there’s a good chance it would be Nick Kolakowski’s Maxine Unleashes Doomsday. White hot words and images of a crumbling society leap off the page giving the reader a scary look at a future which, in light of what’s going on today, is not so far-fetched. Kolakowski is a master at creating fascinating, horrifying characters fighting for existence in a world gone wild.” — Charles Salzberg, Shamus Award-nominated author of Swann’s Last Song and Second Story Man
