The Know Circuit, Book 2 of The Bridge Chronicles

HaemishM · 07-22-2010, 05:37 PM

The sequel to my debut cyberpunk novel, Under the Amoral Bridge: A Cyberpunk Novel, is called The Know Circuit. It's available in the Kindle Store and on Smashwords. It continues The Bridge Chronicles, the exciting tales of the future's amoral fixer with the razor wit, Artemis Bridge.

Artemis Bridge is the know-who, go-to guy, the no-questions-asked fixer for all illegal, immoral and unethical desires in the seedy underworld of 2028 Los Angeles. The Know Circuit finds Artemis Bridge drawn to the city of Boulder, Colorado by a psychic attack that strikes every person implanted with a cybernetic interface jack west of the Rockies. The attack follows the appearance of an impenetrable dome surrounding the city, cutting off all communications with the residents. Any attempt to penetrate the dome results in death and destruction; a news chopper is downed by a column of fire, all electrical power in the areas surrounding the dome is drained. To make matters worse, Bridge's bodyguard Aristotle reveals that the grandmother who raised him lives in the affected area, and pressures Bridge to aid him in a vain rescue attempt. Bridge reluctantly agrees, enlisting the aid of ex-footballer turned gangster Stonewall Ricardo for muscle. The three leave Los Angeles for the frosty climes of Boulder, crossing corporate boundaries from the shiny happy face of Chronosoft's California to the survivalist hostility of the Legios Corporation. At every obstacle, Bridge is pushed forward by one strange occurrence after another, from cars that transform into robotic golems to haunting dreams demanding his help. Nothing could prepare the cynical Bridge for his rendezvous with a gigantic flame dragon, who leads him to an unbelievable confrontation with the architects of the disaster.

If you like engrossing characters, acerbic wit and intriguing mysteries in a science-fiction setting, these novels are right up your alley.

HaemishM · 08-18-2010, 04:05 PM

I did a great interview with the author David Wisehart today about my cyberpunk novels on his Kindle Author blog:

http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/20...y-ballard.html

HaemishM · 08-18-2010, 04:19 PM

David Wisehart posted a great interview with me today about my cyberpunk novels on his Kindle Author blog:

http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/20...y-ballard.html

HaemishM · 10-23-2010, 05:17 AM

The Know Circuit was featured this past week on the indie author web site, The Indie Spotlight. It includes an interview with me and an excerpt from the book.

The eBook is on sale in the Kindle Store for only $2.39 indefinitely. It's also available in an eBook compilation with the first book in the Bridge Chronicles series, called The Bridge Chronicles, Books 1 & 2, on sale at the Kindle store for only $2.79 (normally $3.50).

HaemishM · 11-15-2010, 11:30 AM

Rather than tell you myself about the protagonist, Artemis Bridge, I decided to let the ones who know him best describe him. That's right, I'm letting my characters speak for me. Angela is the first one up. Bridge's on-again, off-again girlfriend and renowned GlobalNet hacker, Angela knows Bridge (or Artie as she calls him) better than anyone. In her words:

"Wait, I have to talk about Bridge without profanity? Unpossible. ****. Sorry. Bridge kind of brings that out of me. I’d stab him in the soul if I thought he had one. No, I mean it. He’s become this soulless, cheeseball manipulator, like a car salesman gene-spliced with a lawyer. All that slick patter, that little routine he goes through. It’s all BS. Don’t get me wrong, you need something? He knows somebody that’s got it or can get it for you. Imagine the dirtiest, scuzziest, most disgusting immoral thing you can think of, somehow that so-and-so knows a guy that specializes in that particular brand of depravity. I think he actually gets off on it. He loves wallowing in the worst aspects of humanity. Not like he used to be. He used to want to build stuff, he could create these worlds that couldn’t exist, these mind-blowing GlobalNet havens, just impossibly beautiful ****. Now he’s the hookup for scumbags and their enablers.

Did you know he once got a guy in touch with this underground serial killer network? Guy comes to him says, ‘I think I want to kill lots of people in gruesome ways but I don’t know how,’ and Bridge sends him to these guys. How do you even get to know where to find these guys? Good thing the Feds found the network. No telling how many people they sliced up before then. They call Artie the Amoral Bridge, but really, I think he’s about as evil as it can get. Why do I still work with him? Well, he does pay."

Worldwalker · 11-15-2010, 01:51 PM

Just a note: affect != effect.

And the books look good ... might add them to my TBR list when I've read it down to a manageable size (I have got to stay away from Smashwords).

HaemishM · 11-19-2010, 11:16 AM

Wow, do you know how many times I must have looked at that copy without noticing not only the incorrect use of "effected" but the missing "the" as well? Big D'OH. Thanks for pointing that out.

jaxx6166 · 11-19-2010, 11:49 PM

Oh crap. I hate you, Gary. I had completely forgotten about The Know Circuit.

Ww, I checked out Bridge a while back and within like the first five pages I was hooked. Mostly because I like gritty cyberpunky stuff. I remember reading the first few pages and the only words I said were "Yes!" and "about damn time"

Apparently, the spambots love it too, because the blog I wrote about it gets the most spiders crawling it and filling my page with their crap.

Which means, you might very well hate it

HaemishM · 02-02-2011, 11:40 AM

Brandon of the Drunken Scholar just gave The Know Circuit a great review, found here. He says:

Quote:

"Looking back one weak point about Bridge's character in the first novel is that he was kinda cookie cutter as anti-heroes go. Aside from the snappy end of his dialogue there wasn't a lot of soul there. That is definitely not the case in The Know Circuit. Oh, sure, Bridge returns with all of his wit, cynicism, and swagger. But Ballard allows him to grow exponentially in depth through complex emotional responses due to his relationship with Aristotle and the situation that he finds himself in. It's safe to say that Artemis Bridge is fast becoming one of my favorite a**holes of literature."

Gary A. Ballard
http://amoralbridge.blogspot.com

caleb72 · 02-09-2011, 04:28 AM

Now purchased and on the TBR list.

Regards
Caleb

caleb72 · 02-26-2011, 09:02 AM

Just finished this book. Loved it.

There's some lovely cynicism from Bridge which reminds me a little of how I think - such as this:

Quote:

Bridge shifted in the seat and laughed. "You're both missing the fundamental problem with all that shit. You can talk around the issue with flowery language and academic labels but it all falls apart the minute you put it in to practice. Human beings are fucked up creatures. Too much is never enough. Put a man in charge of feeding the poor and he will be eating caviar while doling out government cheese covered in rat droppings. Give him $10 profit by employing American adults and he'll drop them on Skid Row the minute he can get some three-year old in Botswana to make the same product for ten cents. He can't help it. We may have mapped the DNA of humans, but we missed the most important gene of all - the asshole gene. Everybody's got it, every race, every sex, every creed, every country. We're all just gigantic assholes in waiting."

Favourite quote in the book. I still consider Bridge to be "my guy" when it comes to anti-heroes.

Looking forward to the next book in the series.

Regards
Caleb

HaemishM · 03-01-2011, 11:43 AM

Glad you liked it so much, Caleb. And thanks for the review over on Amazon - those reviews are priceless when it comes to selling books on the site, especially Kindle versions.

I would have updated this last week, but I had a terrible case of bronchitis mixed with flu, so I'm updating now that I feel a bit more human. I finished publishing the other 2 parts of Connection: Keep Alive for anyone interested. I've linked all 3 parts of the short story below. I'm currently working on another short story that might make it by the end of March, and the sequel to The Know Circuit is in the second stage of edits.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Hope you guys like it!

07-22-2010, 05:37 PM	#1
HaemishM Author Posts: 60 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Jackson, MS Device: Motorola Xoom	The Know Circuit, Book 2 of The Bridge Chronicles The sequel to my debut cyberpunk novel, Under the Amoral Bridge: A Cyberpunk Novel, is called The Know Circuit. It's available in the Kindle Store and on Smashwords. It continues The Bridge Chronicles, the exciting tales of the future's amoral fixer with the razor wit, Artemis Bridge. Artemis Bridge is the know-who, go-to guy, the no-questions-asked fixer for all illegal, immoral and unethical desires in the seedy underworld of 2028 Los Angeles. The Know Circuit finds Artemis Bridge drawn to the city of Boulder, Colorado by a psychic attack that strikes every person implanted with a cybernetic interface jack west of the Rockies. The attack follows the appearance of an impenetrable dome surrounding the city, cutting off all communications with the residents. Any attempt to penetrate the dome results in death and destruction; a news chopper is downed by a column of fire, all electrical power in the areas surrounding the dome is drained. To make matters worse, Bridge's bodyguard Aristotle reveals that the grandmother who raised him lives in the affected area, and pressures Bridge to aid him in a vain rescue attempt. Bridge reluctantly agrees, enlisting the aid of ex-footballer turned gangster Stonewall Ricardo for muscle. The three leave Los Angeles for the frosty climes of Boulder, crossing corporate boundaries from the shiny happy face of Chronosoft's California to the survivalist hostility of the Legios Corporation. At every obstacle, Bridge is pushed forward by one strange occurrence after another, from cars that transform into robotic golems to haunting dreams demanding his help. Nothing could prepare the cynical Bridge for his rendezvous with a gigantic flame dragon, who leads him to an unbelievable confrontation with the architects of the disaster. If you like engrossing characters, acerbic wit and intriguing mysteries in a science-fiction setting, these novels are right up your alley. Last edited by Dr. Drib; 12-04-2013 at 07:02 PM.

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08-18-2010, 04:05 PM	#2
HaemishM Author Posts: 60 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Jackson, MS Device: Motorola Xoom	I did a great interview with the author David Wisehart today about my cyberpunk novels on his Kindle Author blog: http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/20...y-ballard.html

08-18-2010, 04:19 PM	#3
HaemishM Author Posts: 60 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Jackson, MS Device: Motorola Xoom	David Wisehart posted a great interview with me today about my cyberpunk novels on his Kindle Author blog: http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/20...y-ballard.html

10-23-2010, 05:17 AM	#4
HaemishM Author Posts: 60 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Jackson, MS Device: Motorola Xoom	The Know Circuit was featured this past week on the indie author web site, The Indie Spotlight. It includes an interview with me and an excerpt from the book. The eBook is on sale in the Kindle Store for only $2.39 indefinitely. It's also available in an eBook compilation with the first book in the Bridge Chronicles series, called The Bridge Chronicles, Books 1 & 2, on sale at the Kindle store for only $2.79 (normally $3.50).

11-15-2010, 11:30 AM	#5
HaemishM Author Posts: 60 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Jackson, MS Device: Motorola Xoom	Rather than tell you myself about the protagonist, Artemis Bridge, I decided to let the ones who know him best describe him. That's right, I'm letting my characters speak for me. Angela is the first one up. Bridge's on-again, off-again girlfriend and renowned GlobalNet hacker, Angela knows Bridge (or Artie as she calls him) better than anyone. In her words: "Wait, I have to talk about Bridge without profanity? Unpossible. **. Sorry. Bridge kind of brings that out of me. I’d stab him in the soul if I thought he had one. No, I mean it. He’s become this soulless, cheeseball manipulator, like a car salesman gene-spliced with a lawyer. All that slick patter, that little routine he goes through. It’s all BS. Don’t get me wrong, you need something? He knows somebody that’s got it or can get it for you. Imagine the dirtiest, scuzziest, most disgusting immoral thing you can think of, somehow that so-and-so knows a guy that specializes in that particular brand of depravity. I think he actually gets off on it. He loves wallowing in the worst aspects of humanity. Not like he used to be. He used to want to build stuff, he could create these worlds that couldn’t exist, these mind-blowing GlobalNet havens, just impossibly beautiful **. Now he’s the hookup for scumbags and their enablers. Did you know he once got a guy in touch with this underground serial killer network? Guy comes to him says, ‘I think I want to kill lots of people in gruesome ways but I don’t know how,’ and Bridge sends him to these guys. How do you even get to know where to find these guys? Good thing the Feds found the network. No telling how many people they sliced up before then. They call Artie the Amoral Bridge, but really, I think he’s about as evil as it can get. Why do I still work with him? Well, he does pay."

11-15-2010, 01:51 PM	#6
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	Just a note: affect != effect. And the books look good ... might add them to my TBR list when I've read it down to a manageable size (I have got to stay away from Smashwords).

11-19-2010, 11:16 AM	#7
HaemishM Author Posts: 60 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Jackson, MS Device: Motorola Xoom	Wow, do you know how many times I must have looked at that copy without noticing not only the incorrect use of "effected" but the missing "the" as well? Big D'OH. Thanks for pointing that out.

11-19-2010, 11:49 PM	#8
jaxx6166 Wizard Posts: 1,222 Karma: 769316 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Eternal summer Device: 350, iPad, PW	Oh crap. I hate you, Gary. I had completely forgotten about The Know Circuit. Ww, I checked out Bridge a while back and within like the first five pages I was hooked. Mostly because I like gritty cyberpunky stuff. I remember reading the first few pages and the only words I said were "Yes!" and "about damn time" Apparently, the spambots love it too, because the blog I wrote about it gets the most spiders crawling it and filling my page with their crap. Which means, you might very well hate it

02-09-2011, 04:28 AM	#10
caleb72 Indie Advocate Posts: 2,863 Karma: 18794463 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kindle	Now purchased and on the TBR list. Regards Caleb

03-01-2011, 11:43 AM	#12
HaemishM Author Posts: 60 Karma: 100000 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Jackson, MS Device: Motorola Xoom	Glad you liked it so much, Caleb. And thanks for the review over on Amazon - those reviews are priceless when it comes to selling books on the site, especially Kindle versions. I would have updated this last week, but I had a terrible case of bronchitis mixed with flu, so I'm updating now that I feel a bit more human. I finished publishing the other 2 parts of Connection: Keep Alive for anyone interested. I've linked all 3 parts of the short story below. I'm currently working on another short story that might make it by the end of March, and the sequel to The Know Circuit is in the second stage of edits. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Hope you guys like it!