Title: Distress Cries of Animals
Author: James W. Fuerst
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Ravaged by global warming, New York City is hyper-stratified: genetically modified humanoids luxuriate in the technotopian SkyDecks of Hi-Town, while the natural masses toil as pain surrogates confined to Lo-Town, the flooded wreckage of the once-great metropolis.
Pain biz legend Lázaro Mato can’t gig anymore but is desperate to stack enough coin to modify, elevate, and reunite with his missing love. When he’s offered a gig to mine data on a crate of child-sized arms, he jumps at it.
Something’s off. But Laz is out of options, and he’s determined to see the investigation through to the end, no matter what sinister secrets he uncovers, or what it costs.
ISBN: 978-1-951393-44-1
Price: $16 (paperback) $5 (ebook)
Release date: April 29, 2025
Praise for Distress Cries of Animals:
“Sitting firmly at the intersection of noir detective novel, dystopian speculative fiction, and covert political treatise, Distress Cries of Animals shows us exactly where we’ll end up if our current racist and nativist style of socioeconomic division(s) continues. With its hints and nods to Anthony Burgess, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Donna Haraway, Bret Easton Ellis, Karl Marx, and at least a half-dozen other famous authors and thinkers, Animals manages to not only be intellectually stimulating, but also emotionally wrenching and totally, socially urgent. Basically, this novel succeeds on multiple literary fronts, and Animals is a must-read book, full stop.”
— Rone Shavers, author of Silverfish
“Fuerst combines the hard-boiled toughness of Dashiell Hammett, the verbal pyrotechnics of Anthony Burgess, and the dystopian vision of J.G. Ballard, but what truly elevates Distress Cries of Animals is its heart. As its title suggests, the novel calls us back to the living, breathing, flesh-and-blood reality fighting to survive beneath all the machinery of our age.”
— Christopher R. Beha, author of Index of Self-Destructive Acts
“Similar to Irvine Welsh’s use of dialect in Trainspotting and Skagboys, Fuerst pulls you into a dark, layered mystery unfolding in an unrecognizable future New York City with a language all its own. Good luck putting this one down.”
— Greg Shemkovitz, author of REWIND
“The world is drowning: floodwaters and deadly social divisions threaten all life, and survival comes through modification. Distress Cries of Animals thrusts readers into a future where cyber-enhancements are a measure of human worth and pit the genetically modified elite against the unaltered masses scraping by in flood-wracked lo-town. Through a daring, neo-cyber-vernacular-charged-narrative reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange and Trainspotting, James W. Fuerst immerses us in the fractured dialects and underground economies of a society split by flesh and machine.”
— William M. Brandon III, author of Eternity: The Long and Short of It, SILENCE & Selene, and The Exile The Matriarch & The Flood
“Resisting and illumining techno-stratifications, James W. Fuerst’s Distress Cries of Animals is exemplary. With electric pacing and oft-sizzling wit, Fuerst has an enthralling attunement to the inner workings of cyborgs, humans, climate change, hybridity and our deadening cities. A high-stakes sort of work that demands several rereads—to savor, to analyze, to appreciate. This is easily one of the best dystopian novels I’ve read in recent memory. A must-read.”
— Jennifer Maritza McCauley, author of When Trying to Return Home
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