Title: Oily
Author: Angus Woodward
A deep-water oil rig explodes, killing workers and spewing millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. The survival of the human species is threatened, and it is up to a New Orleans couple and a pair of aliens to prevent our extinction…
It begins when Warren, a young college instructor, encounters a spaceship on a levee. He and his ailing wife, Penny, soon learn that the aliens piloting the ship have been sent to monitor Earth’s petroleum use, and their bosses are pretty upset. To make matters worse, their planet’s government intends to eradicate the human race to stop the flow of oil.
The New Orleans couple scrambles to prevent our extinction by any means they can, with a little help from their new alien friends. Couched as a terms-of-use agreement, those ever-present post-modern texts that no one reads, OILY is a playful, experimental novel on heroism, absurdity, and life from other worlds.
ISBN: 978-0-9997862-4-6
Price: $13.95 (paperback) $2.99 (Kindle ebook)
Release date: 10/15/18
Praise for Oily:
“Angus Woodward has invented a sly and funny new literary form all his own: the novel as a ‘Terms of Use’ agreement. Add space aliens, oil spills, and a touchingly effective modern-day love story, and you’ll get some idea of what he’s up to in OILY. Highly recommended for fans of Vonnegut, Warner Bros., and anyone who’s ever wondered what’s really included in those user contracts.”
– George Bishop, author of THE NIGHT OF THE COMET
“In his lustrous and highly lubricated novel, OILY, Angus Woodward has come unstuck in time, sure, but also within the matrix of the whole carbon-chain construct of narrative convention. Lathering layers upon layers of healthy meta-fictions and hearty surrealities, he creates a piquant parquet of polyunsaturated satiric strata. Good for him! Good for us all! While deploying a host of alienating effects (and aliens to boot) OILY discombobulates us, a bath of defamiliarization, all surplus, the world stripped down to its pieces, reassembled into something strange but utilitarian like a Jeep, reduced to all its parts, packed in Cosmoline, made ready to hit the road.
– Michael Martone author of BROODING and THE MOON OVER WAPAKONETA
“Angus Woodward’s OILY is more than slightly hallucinatory, very inventive meta-science fiction. What’s not to like? Take your pick— Its endless funny soliloquies, its charmingly askew descriptions, its many layered tale or its exceptionally astute, petite aliens— I don’t want to spoil it for you—try it for yourself. Enjoy.”
– Moira Crone author of, among several other books, THE NOT YET, finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, 2012
Spaceboy Books 