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High fashion, corporate malfeasance, celebrity culture, and an obsessed media collide with exuberant violence and volatile intensity in Grey, the explosive debut novel by Jon Armstrong.

For Michael Rivers, life is perfect. Michael has everything; tall, handsome, and famous, he is worshipped by billions of fans around the globe. He is wealthy beyond measure, the heir apparent to RiverGroup, one of the handful of high-tech corporations that controls the world. He is fashionable, setting trends with his wardrobe of immaculate designer suits, each a unique and celebrated work of art. And Michael is in love, perfect love, sharing a private language based entirely on quotes from the latest fashion magazine advertisements, with Nora, his beautiful, witty, and equally perfect fiance, the only woman with whom he can see surgically-altered monochromatic eye to eye.

When an assassin's bullets pierce Michael's body before the unblinking eyes of cameras, reporters, and viewers at a press junket, everything changes, forcing Michael to question everything about his previously perfect world. Illusions shattered and forcibly separated from Nora, Michael seeks to uncover the reasons behind the attempted assassination, embarking on a quest that leads him to question his relationships with his loud, profane, and narcissistically Ultra father; his estranged mother; and the perilous, contaminated, neo-feudalistic world that lies beyond the safe and protected bubble of corporate family life.

Michael must delve deep into his past, finding that all paths he uncovers seem to lead to the now-closed PartyHaus, and to a time when he was the golden boy, dancing furiously to the beat of notorious all-night Rage parties thrown by his father.

Grey was published by NightShade Books in February 2007.

"Grey is a legendary book waiting to happen. It's a mad, stylish, trippy, endlessly inventive romp through the biohazardous wastes of post-genre literature. Jon Armstrong is a genius, with an umlaut, to the fifth power."
-- Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Wonder Boys.

"A dazzling trip through a world alternately glamorous and grimy, set in a crumbling but media-saturated future, with eyeball-kicks galore." --Locus Magazine

"If you enjoy or, better yet, prefer a more literary than commercial read and you can appreciate a satirical stab at not only the fashionable elite of entertainment but a subtle yet obvious social comment on the general public and its destructive nature, then give Grey a read; it will not disappoint you." -- Book Opinions

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works- 3.0 United States License.

Audio Quality: Out of 30 ratings

Narration Quality: Out of 30 ratings

Writing Quality: Out of 30 ratings

Overall Rating: Out of 30 ratings

By: Nobilis
A marvelous voice reading a marvelous story. The bizarrely surreal contrasted with the warmly human.

By: Jersey Todd
I just finished. What an ending. What a book. Sequel please? Pretty please? I may have to start the podiobook over. There is so much room to fantasize about the back-story of the world created here, and where the characters go after the story ends. I'm really going to miss not being part of the "Grey" world. [btw, Mr. Armstrong must do a dead-on Kevin Spacey impersonation]

By: Traeonna
I?ve just finished Chapter 9. Typically I wait until I?ve finished an entire book before I post a comment, but I just couldn?t this time. I wanted to tell you that every time Michael?s world is described, the endless details regarding fashion, the snippets from Pure H; I?m in heaven. I can almost touch and feel all the various fabrics and can see all of the lovely details and embellishments. Charcoal is just so beautiful. I find myself smiling each time you describe Michael and Nora?s world. And then you go and ruin it with Michael?s father. Every time Michael?s father opens his mouth, I feel like retching. His world is completely grotesque in my eyes. I?m visually and aurally assaulted each time he pops up in the story. Yes, he is a delightfully horrid character for which I have cursed death upon so many times. But you don?t stop there. Oh no. You have that frightfully hideous scene with that other girl. You know the one I?m talking about. Good gods, I got chills. I about died when she turned around and there was a tail?as if the pink fur and hairdo wasn?t enough to kill me. Good gods, could it be any worse? I look forward to seeing where this story takes me next.

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