Here’s to a meteoric but meteor-free journey for Leonard Richardson’s sophomore outing Situation Normal, a poignant military space opera in the tradition of Heller’s Catch-22. Leonard’s debut Constellation Games—a novel of first contact, video games and computer programming, equal parts Big Ideas, clever whimsy and genuine pathos—won high praise across science fiction, from Boing Boing to Strange Horizons.
Situation Normal is a satirical yet deeply kind work that fuses Serenity with Guardians of the Galaxy, the Coen brothers doing Star Trek. Set in a wildly original universe, with a large vivid multispecies cast, it contains (inter alia) sentient parasites, weaponized marketing, horny alien teens, and cosplaying monks. The cover, which distills Situation Normal’s humor and pathos, is by accomplished graphic designer Brittany Hague.
Born in Los Angeles and raised in California, Leonard now lives in New York City where he writes programs (for the NY Public Library, inter alia) and fiction; among his creations are robotfindskitten, Beautiful Soup, RESTful Web APIs, and, of course, Constellation Games (Candlemark & Gleam 2011).
As a companion to Situation Normal, Leonard has posted a special retconned version of Four Kinds of Cargo, a short story about some of the major players in Situation Normal that first appeared in Strange Horizons (2012). He’s also posted an essay about the genesis of the work on John Scalzi’s Big Idea forum.
Situation Normal garnered praise as enthusiastic as its older sibling, from Cory Doctorow (“A triumph: madcap and trenchant, dancing on the precise meridian between funny and weird, with a wild, imaginative boldness that reinvents space-opera from the gravity well up.” —plus an in-depth Twitter review) to Booklist (“A fast-paced romp reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut channeled through the wild inventiveness of Charles Stross and the irreverent political attitude of Cory Doctorow.” —Don Vicha, starred review) and Library Journal (“Seamlessly blending serious subject matter with humor, [Situation Normal] shines a light on today’s issues in a way that will have readers laughing one minute and wanting to cry the next.” —Elisabeth Clark). Here’s a brief synopsis to whet appetites:
The galaxy’s two multi-species superpowers stand on the brink of yet another pointless war. Soldiers, draft-dodgers, smugglers and spies from both sides are rushing towards Cedar Commons, an uninhabited forest planet near the border. Everyone has some plan for fighting, avoiding, or profiting from the conflict.
None of these plans are going to work out: war destroys plans as efficiently as it does lives. But as the visitors to this once-quiet planet discover each other, they’ll make new friends, new enemies, and new plans that have a chance to end the war before it causes the collapse of several civilizations.
Situation Normal is available on Amazon, B&N, Kobo – and of course on our website, where buying the lovingly prepared trade paperback also brings along the full digital bundle (PDF, Epub and Mobi). All C&G ebooks are DRM-free.
Come celebrate this trenchant work with us! Keep an eye on your EVA suits, and monitor spaceship frequencies.
