Yarn

by Jon Armstrong

Overview

From the neo-feudalistic slubs, the corn-filled world of Tane's youth, to his apprenticeship among the deadly saleswarriors of Seattlehama—the sex-and-shopping capital of the world—to the horrors of a polluted Antarctica, Yarn tells a stylish tale of love, deceit, and memory.

Tane Cedar is the master tailor, the supreme outfitter of the wealthy, the beautiful, and the powerful. When an ex-lover, on the run from the authorities, asks him to create a garment from the dangerous and illegal Xi yarn—a psychedelic opiate—to ease her final hours, Tane's world is torn apart.

Armed with just his yarn pulls, scissors, Mini-Air-Juki handheld sewing machine, and his wits, Tane journeys through the shadowy underworld where he must untangle the deadly mysteries and machinations of decades of deceit.

Following up on his highly acclaimed and Philip K. Dick Award-nominated Grey, Jon Armstrong explodes back on the scene with Yarn.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597802864
Publisher:	Night Shade Books
Publication date:	12/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	309
File size:	416 KB

About the Author

Jon Armstrong is the author of the critically acclaimed “fashionpunk” novel Grey. The son of parents trained in the Arts, he was raised in the shadow of Modernism and misspelled his way through school. In college, he spent a formative year in Japan. That neon/noisy culture forms the roots of the world in his novels. After college, he traveled the world as a by-product of stints at travel agencies and an airline, studied fashion design, did stand-up comedy, worked as a temp doing graphic arts, and (still to this day) designs web sites. Jon lives with his wife and daughter in New York City. He is currently working on the third book in the Grey/Yarn series as well as the golf swing of the future.

Editorial Reviews

Armstrong's stand-alone prequel to his 2007 debut, Grey, is set in the same superficial, dystopic near-future ruled by fashion and consumerism. Cities like Seattlehama are towering bastions of "sex and shopping" where "saleswarriors" and "salessoldiers" battle for customers. Most people live in the sprawling agricultural areas called slubs. Tane Cedar, one of the world's top fashion designers, is confounded when his former lover Vada, a fugitive revolutionary, inexplicably appears near death in his showroom and asks him to complete the impossible task of finding illegal yarn and making a coat of it in just one day. Tane's quest confronts him with the tyranny and hopelessness of the world outside of the cities while answering his questions about his nightmarish childhood and enigmatic father. Armstrong's stylized tale is a profoundly moving fusion of visionary images and compelling social commentary. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Tane Cedar, master tailor in a future where fashion and power go hand in hand with cutting-edge technology and designer drugs, fulfills a dying ex-lover's request to create a garment from the illegal Xi-yarn, a psychotropic material that will allow her to die in bliss. His search for the illusive substance brings him to the attention of the authorities, intent on stopping traffic in Xi, as well as the criminal element that reconnects to his dangerous past. The author of Grey, perhaps the first "fashionpunk" novel, creates a stylish yet thoughtful commentary on memory and betrayal. VERDICT Ranging from the underworld of Seattlehama to the ruins of Antarctica, Armstrong's vision of a dystopic future should appeal to fans of cyberpunk and sf technothrillers.

Library Journal