Jim Munroe
Angry Young Spaceman

"On one level, this book reads as a critique of American cultural imperialism in the present. On another, it resembles some lost Heinlein young adult novel. And that's a trick…! " — Scifi.com

"The language is unflowery and unpretentious … the plot is tight, the tone throughout is amusing, the main character is likeable and the science fiction setting is both campy and pointed." — Vancouver Sun

In 1999, Jim Munroe exploded onto the SF scene with Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask, a first novel that Kirkus Reviews called, "Wonderfully written.… A debut notable for the spectacular insouciance of its dialogue and an unstoppable, fearless, herky-jerky flow of inventive humor. Munroe masterfully carries off his admittedly weird conceits, suspends our disbelief, and gives us nothing but delight in his imagination." These are strong words, to be sure, but Monroe's new novel proves they were anything but an exaggeration.

When Sam Breen graduates from college — class of 2959, that is — he finds himself confronted with banality on all sides. He's got a massive student loan to pay back, and he also wants a new jetpack. (Both of which seem damn near unattainable in light of his predilection for getting into raucous bar fights and turning down degrading, dead-end jobs.) So he does what any enterprising young graduate would do: he signs up to teach English as a foreign language.

The only catch is that in this case, it's on another planet. Octavia is an underwater world populated by eight-armed aliens with a voracious appetite for English — among other things, as Sam will discover. But at the spaceport someone steals his Speak-O-Matic translator, and he's left to face his students without being able to understand a word they say. Nevertheless, Sam is no xenophobe, and he quickly takes up with Jinya of the sexy, undulating tentacles. They speak the universal language so well that Sam completely forgets any Earthly concerns he may harbor.

With its unique combination of kitsch science fiction with straightforward social satire — rayguns and race relations, teleportation devices and teen angst — Angry Young Spaceman represents the arrival of an exciting, innovating young voice in contemporary SF.

Jim Munroe's first novel, Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask, was published by HarperCollins in 1999. He is a former managing editor of Adbusters magazine, and he's the founder of No Media Kings (www.nomediakings.org). Munroe will be touring the U.S. in support of Angry Young Spaceman, with stops in Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, New Orleans, Seattle, Portland (OR), Greenville (SC), Columbia (MO), Charlottesville, and Ann Arbor. Four Walls will be kicking in gas money — Premium, baby! — but Munroe will be on his own for oil changes and tire rotations.