Afterparty

By: Daryl Gregory

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

It begins in Toronto, in the years after the smart drug revolution. Any high school student with a chemjet and internet connection can download recipes and print drugs, or invent them. A seventeen-year-old street girl finds God through a new brain-altering drug called Numinous, used as a sacrament by a new Church that preys on the underclass. But she is arrested and put into detention, and without the drug, commits suicide.

Lyda Rose, another patient in that detention facility, has a dark secret: She was one of the original scientists who developed the drug. With the help of an ex-government agent and an imaginary, drug-induced doctor, Lyda sets out to find the other three survivors of the five who made the Numinous in a quest to set things right.

A mind-bending and violent chase across Canada and the US, Daryl Gregory's Afterparty is a marvelous mix of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Philip K. Dick’s Ubik, and perhaps a bit of Peter Watts’s Starfish: A last chance to save civilization, or die trying.

©2014 Daryl Gregory (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Smart, witty altered-consciousness thriller

Afterparty was a pleasant discovery for me, comparable to recent Neal Stephenson or William Gibson, but less geeked-out than the former and a little snarkier than the latter.

The initial setting is a near-future Toronto. A former neuroscientist named Lyda is in a mental hospital, in the wake of a series of breakdowns. It’s about a decade after her biotech startup discovered, while trying to cure schizophrenia, a drug that enables users to experience God. Well, in a manner of speaking. More specifically, Lyda and her colleagues overdosed on the drug and each now experiences a very convincing hallucination of a heavenly spirit companion. In Lyda's case, it's a moralizing winged angel named Doctor Gloria. In more controlled doses, the drug, nicknamed Numinous, makes people feel that they're in the presence of the divine.

It’s not the only mind-altering custom drug in this future. There's now a whole subculture of print-it-at-home drug manufacture, to say nothing of what more serious organizations do with the tech. Some products have amusingly harmless effects, but some alter consciousness in disturbing ways, such as one that removes one character’s natural empathy and turns him into a temporary sociopath.

When a peculiarly troubled teenage patient shows up in the clinic, it dawns on Lyda that Numinous, which her and her colleagues swore to keep secret, is now on the street, being distributed by a strange new “church”. So, Lyda must check herself out of the hospital, evade monitoring systems, get across the border, and track down her former colleagues in the US. Her only allies are a sweetly unaware young man who thinks his consciousness resides in the aquarium toy hanging from his neck, and a crafty American ex-intelligence officer whose own mind has been scrambled by too much "focus" drug over her career. And a cat. And, of course, the amusingly huffy Doctor G, who remains invisible to everyone but Lyda.

This is definitely a smart book, asking meaningful philosophical questions about the nature of being and the implications of messing with our brains/minds. Or of messing with other people's. It's also a witty one, with cleverly written scenes, oddball characters, and a lot of snarky quips from Lyda. For example, when a drug dealer sells a seemingly effective gay-for-a-day "product" to some straight dudebros at a college frat party, she retorts, "product? Don't you mean placebo?" (Well, it made me laugh.)

The story, once it gets going, is interesting. There's also a backstory that emerges, concerning the tragic events that took place at Little Sprout (the startup) ten years ago, what became of Lyda's wife and fellow scientist, who took too much Numinous, how Lyda ended up in the mental hospital, and what happened to her daughter, who she had to give up for adoption. While Gregory doesn’t posit a drastically altered future, I also enjoyed the creative, incidental little ideas that he drops in here and there, such as a plausible successor to smart phones. Like the plot of a good thriller, all the pieces come together in the end, but with some room for taking the characters and setup further, should he choose to.

If there are a few believability issues and the ending is a little predictable, it’s a thriller with a brain and an eye on an approaching bend in the road ahead. And the core questions -- if there is a better us inside ourselves, should we try to access it by tampering with ourselves? Or should we not? Is “divine experience” more about the divine, or the experience? -- are ones that Gregory keeps hovering in our peripheral vision throughout the book, but admirably never tries to answer for us.

God is a drug in this near-future thriller

This is the second book I've read by Daryl Gregory. He seems to like writing speculative fiction set in a near future, rather than settling into a series or a theme. "Raising Stony Mayhall" was one of the best zombie novels I've ever read. Afterparty, his latest, is also set a couple of decades from now, in a world where 3D printers have advanced to manufacturing pharmaceuticals, so anyone can "print" their own custom controlled substances.

Lyda Rose, the protagonist, was a neuroscientist who helped create Numinous. It was supposed to be a treatment for schizophrenia; instead, it helps its users find God. Or gods. Or some god.

The effect is spiritual if not supernatural: Numinous rewires the brain and provides you with your very own guardian angel (in Lyda's case, a judgmental winged psychologist named "Dr. Gloria"). The subjects are absolutely convinced they are receiving messages from the Divine, even if they know intellectually about Numinous. Lyda's conversations with her guardian angel, who she knows is a product of her drug-induced imagination, are believable because deep down, Lyda believes in her.

How Lyda came to be hooked on her own creation, and why she has to escape from a prison-hospital and track down the other former members of her little start-up company that was going to get rich, is a mystery that unfolds in a well-paced thriller with plenty of reveals and twists. There is an Afghan grandmother who is the most powerful drug lord in Seattle, a psychopathic hit man who calls himself "The Vincent" and raises bonsai buffalo herds in his apartment, a millionaire whose adopted daughter is a little prodigy assisted by her "deck" of "IFs" (Imaginary Friends), and of course, Dr. Gloria.

This wasn't quite a grand-slam of a book, but it was interesting and well-paced and original, with believable characters. Definitely recommended.

An Answer to the Mystery of Existence

Actually the most rewarding answer I got was to the question "Why is this book called Afterparty?"; ... and that came near the end of the book.

It was a tough start, I almost gave up near the beginning. This was probably a matter of getting used to the writers style and ideas. The main idea of a drug unlocking access to a personal god was just too intriguing for me to give up. Part of the problem was not understanding that the main character Lyda Rose was interacting with a personal god and being confused at the start of the book.

Once the story took off for me there was a lot of hair raising action, interesting characters and a major twist near the end to satisfy my baser instincts. And, while all this is going on we have this highly original idea of a drug called Numinous that unlocks our biological propensity towards explaining life through religion and a deity. Lyda, the scientist still keeps a skeptical distance from her personal god as she talks to it and alternatively craves and rejects its attentions. Others on her team who developed and ingested the potent drug accept their gods without question.

This drug was deemed too dangerous for the general public and got discontinued. The story revolves around Lyda discovering that it has surreptitiously reappeared many years later. She is worried about the harmful effects on the world and she tries to track down where it is coming from. The people who were on her development team are the prime suspects

As for the answer to the mystery of existence - if it was that easy, we would have figured it out after thousands of years trying to explain everything with all sorts of religions. We would all be in agreement at this stage of our collective history.

You will just have to be satisfied with the answer to the question of why is this book called Afterparty in this highly innovative, entertaining adventure.

Clever, Novel, Entertaining

What made the experience of listening to Afterparty the most enjoyable?

This was a very interesting story populated with very interesting people. I was impressed by the individuals who emerged from this author's mind. He's either possessed or a genius.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Afterparty?

Conversations with Dr. Gloria were always memorable. We'd all be improved if there was a helpful and insightful inner voice-- but would we listen to it?

Which scene was your favorite?

In this not-too-distant world, miniature cattle have been created through genetic engineering and one character keeps them in his living room. This is just a tiny part of the the story, but the reference to these mini-cattle is so casual, with none of the moral qualms that seem to plague our society. The description of this "Home on the Range" was a great scene.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The opposite of the Twilight series.

Any additional comments?

The narrator was spectacular. She delivered a myriad of distinctive voices and had brought the characters to life. It was a marvelous performance.

Sophisticated and pharmacologically accurate

Afterparty is a smart, sophisticated tale set in the near future (2030's or so) and offers a compelling perspective on evolving drug use. The premise is the re-emergence of a never commercialized treatment for schizophrenia that has as a unique side effect: a powerful spiritual / mental / emotional sense of connection with God. The story of how a failed biotech drug treatment is re-invented as a semi-religious movement is told by a smart, neuroscientist originally involved with the drug's discovery, but whose subsequent life has been a substance abuse / PTSD nightmare following their business implosion after a murder. Along with a paranoid / neurotic fellow mental hospital inmate who happens to be an ex-national security agent, the heroine delves into the source and reasons for her drug's revival.

The sci-fi elements are fairly benign for a near future tale. Scientifically and pharmacologically, the author is accurate and insightful in crafting an engaging and compelling tale, while at the same time maintaining scientific integrity. Beyond the biological neuroscience aspects, there's also exploration of what constitutes free will at the level of neurons.

The narration is superb, capturing the mood and tone of the tale. There's a solid range of both male and female voices with particular attention to individual peccadilloes.

Chemically Induced Redemption

Imagine going to church, taking communion, and as soon as you swallowed the wafer and wine, seeing God right beside you. Or, if not God, an aspect of God – one that you could converse with, argue with, beg, weep with, and scream at. Now, imagine all that if you were an atheist.

Regardless of what you believe or do not believe, as a science fiction fan you have to wonder: short of this miraculous wafer falling from the sky like manna, where is this drug coming from?

In the not too-distant future, anyone with a 3D printer and passable google-fu can print up DIY drugs. When a new drug called Logos starts seeping into the market, giving people a chemically fused Damascus experience, drug lords start acting like music executives, trying to halt the competition however they can. The thing is Logos, also known as Numinous, actually seems to transform sinners into saints, converting them into evangelicals of Logos: people who would lay down their lives for friends and enemies alike – especially if the outcome furthers the gospel of Logos.

Years ago, Lyda Rose was roofied with an overdose of Numinous – the very drug she helped create. It played a part in the death of her wife, stole the child she was pregnant with, led to frequent stays at various mental institutions, and blessed/cursed her with a constant guardian angel she can’t kick. When Lyda discovers Numinous has leaked out on the street, she and the angel living inside her head check out of their current mental institution, and hit the road to find out who’s been manufacturing Logos.

The road trip Lyda and her friends embark stretches across not only Canada and the United States but also maps free will, redemption, the nature of God, and examines the similarities of religion and substance abuse more explicitly than any other book I can think of (and there are a pretty fair amount of SF/F books that have made that comparison). I appreciate that it seems to treat its characters fairly - a lot of the evangelical-esque characters aren't monsters. They're striving for some kind of redemption - even if it happens to be a chemically induced one.

Also: it’s funny as hell, which is kind of surprising for what seems like such a dark book on the cover. But fans of Raising Stony Mayhall will want to check this one out too.

A large part of that is Tavia Gilbert’s narration - it's a perfect match for Gregory’s prose. Her work here as Lyda, Dr. Gloria, Ollie, and the rest of the gance comes off as intelligent, sharp, witty, and someone you'd want to roadtrip with.

Afterparty is a novel with a dark, chewy center that reminds me quite a bit of William Gibson's later novels, but with a style that cranks up the entertainment factor and laughs making this story way more fun than you'd expect it to be with such heady subject matter.

(Originally posted at The AudioBookaneers)

This book was great but I didn't like it.

The philosophical idea were interesting, the dialogue is really well crafted, and I loved the characters the author has constructed here; very much a film-noir-done-by-HBO style of characterisation an dialogue. Also this book is worth listening to just for the narrator's stellar performance of Doctor Gloria. Fantastic. Ultimately, though, the story just didn't gel for me, and I couldn't be bothered sitting through another well-crafted by fruitless conversation between the main characters as they sorted out the implications of a future with lots of designer drugs in, and had some more religious hallucinations. Very cool, but not my bag, as it turns out.

Great story, held my interest throughout!

Would you listen to Afterparty again? Why?

I listened to it twice in a row! The details that I missed in the beginning because I didn't know what was happening were still interesting enough to hear again. Also, I listened on an international flight and spaced out during some of it. It was good enough to hear again!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Hard to talk about without spoilers. So... SPOILER ALERT!

Dr. Gloria was my favorite character. Is she real or imaginary? Is she God, an Angel, or a figment of the imagination?

Any additional comments?

I really, really enjoyed this book. It was a great thought-experiment to wonder if the hallucinations COULD be, in fact, a doorway to divine as many human traditions have long-believed, or just human construct.The only thing I would have changed about the book is hard to discuss without spoilers. I'll just say this. The author overlooked some interesting psychological "coming to terms" in the end when the main character finds out something she believed for so long about people she cared deeply about was untrue. I would have liked to have had that resolved, in at least a few sentences. Otherwise, AWESOME read!

great listen

Enjoyed it from start to finish. Loved the narrator... she owned the characters. Can't wait to listen to more from this writer and hopefully this narrator.

You may suffer from psycosis while listening

Afterparty is set in a believable and recognizable possible future world were anyone can print drugs from their PC. But the really good drugs can still create empires. A group of scientists get together to create a remarkable new drug, with unforeseen side effects. What if after overdosing on this new drug, you now have your personal God living in your head with you, except you think it is real? We are then taken on a psychedelic and psychotic road trip across the continent, full of flashbacks and and things I just wasn't sure about.

So that is the very basic storyline here but there is so much more that is difficult to put into words. There were time I thought I went back in time while staying in the future, yet feel odd no matter where I was. Gregory has created a true mindscrew. The scariest part was that I could relate to several of the schizophrenic characters, maybe that is saying too much about me and my past?

There were time that I had no idea what was happening, thinking that some one in the office spiked the coffee. There were time were I had to stop listening to get solid footing in reality. There were times I was on the edge of my seat with my heart pounding. You need to listen to Afterparty if you want a truly original science fiction thrill ride.

Audiobook purchased by reviewer.