—NPR.org
“This stunning novel of a time all too easily imaginable as our own highlights a few of the keen-voiced, brave-souled women and men who balance like subversive acrobats on society’s whirling edges. . . . Read it to burn with the joy of realistic hope.”
—Nisi Shawl, Tiptree Award–winning author of Everfair and Writing the Other
“A unique blend of Philip K. Dick, Kafka (just a smidgen), and a whole lot of Christopher Brown. Adventure novel meets political satire and the finest elements of realistic sci-fi, and it’s so well written it goes down like a greased eel. It’s hopeful dystopia. What a book.”
—Joe R. Lansdale, author of the Hap and Leonard series
“Tropic [of Kansas] is a knockout first novel, paradoxically solemn yet exuberant, restrained yet inventive, as attested to by well-deserved encomiums from William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Cory Doctorow.”
—Locus magazine
“A new mutation of the alternate history novel.”
—Norman Spinrad (Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine)
“This wildly audacious alternate history pits a black lawyer and her semi-feral stepbrother against a paranoid U.S. government defending its ex-movie-star president, who was maimed during a foiled assassination attempt. This funny, heart-wrenching book cuts through genre expectations with the speed of a jackhammer.”
—Seattle Times
“This book is a powerful vision of an America that might be, an America that some nights seems as though it is all too likely to be, filled with powerful characters and a chilling presentiment of how far our country could fall . . . a novel well worth reading.”
—San Francisco Book Review
“Tropic of Kansas is the tale of a politically desperate USA haunted by a sullen, feral teen who is Huck Finn, Conan, and Tarzan. Because it’s Chris Brown’s own imaginary America, this extraordinary novel is probably more American than America itself will ever get.”
—Bruce Sterling, award-winning author of Islands in the Net and Pirate Utopia
“Tropic of Kansas is a great novel. Brown’s writing is tightly composed, and flows nicely. . . . Definitely recommended.”
—Civilian Reader
“Fun, fast, violent, smart, and with enough adventure and science fiction elements to keep fans of both genres happy, this was more than a superb novel: it was the kind of book that announces the arrival of an author at the top of his game.”
—LitReactor (Best of 2017)
“Tropic of Kansas is savvy political thriller meets ripping pulp adventure—a marriage made in page-turning, thought-provoking heaven. It’s a vision both frighteningly prescient and already too real, and a story of valiant heart and brain up against the worst architectures of greed and power.”
—Jessica Reisman, SESFA Award–winning author of Substrate Phantoms
“A real page-turner.”
—Gavin J. Grant, Bram Stoker Award–winning editor and author
Also by Christopher Brown
Tropic of Kansas
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
rule of capture. Copyright © 2019 by Christopher Brown. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Harper Voyager and design are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers LLC.
first edition
Cover design by Owen Corrigan
Cover photographs © Fuse/Getty Images (columns); © Mint Images/Getty Images (fence); © rigato/Shutterstock (texture)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition AUGUST 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-285911-2
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-285909-9
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4E3
www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida
Uttar Pradesh 201 301
www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com
Rule of Capture Page 31
