Tom Doyle
Published: 2023-09-15
Total Pages: 386
Get eBook
In a galaxy gone insane only mad person would fight for freedom. That person is Eris, a charismatic spy with a violent borderline personality and emotional amnesia—she doesn’t remember her loyalties. This allows her to pass from world to world without mental scanners detecting her long-term intentions, making her a “border crosser.” The Asylum cabal has artificially amplified Eris’s condition so that she’ll cause interstellar chaos for the limited time she survives. When Eris discovers the Asylum’s manipulation of her, she sets out to find its hidden leaders and destroy them. From decadent old Earth to the frontier estates of Mars, Eris hunts her first quarry, the Asylum’s architect of genocides. Her chase then leads her out to the stars, where she discovers still deadlier dangers from humanity’s past and her own. As she fights galaxy-spanning nightmares, Eris knows that her dream of revenge will fail unless she can somehow recover her own mind. “An electric shock to the senses from page one, Doyle's twisty story caroms from sex and psyche to AI and the destruction of worlds. Our conductor on this non-stop ride, Eris—a worthy heir to Buffy and Xena—is the unique and ferocious hero we didn't know we needed.” —Ashley Gable, writer for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Person of Interest. “Darkly comic and slyly allusive, Border Crosser is a ripping good tale shot through with mordant social commentary. A fresh and intelligent take on forbidden AI, religious zealotry, borderline personality, sex, art, and genocide—not necessarily in that order—that stuck in my head and left me hankering for a sequel.” —Jo Miller, winner of four Emmy Awards, writer for The Daily Show (2009-2015), and late-night comedy showrunner. “This is not your parents' space opera! A cross between the Stainless Steel Rat, Jerry Cornelius, and Tank Girl, the titular agent is the antihero for our times. Doyle impresses with a strong voice, a unique narrator, and a challenging far-future setting that dangerously mirrors our present world.” —Alex Shvartsman, author of The Middling Affliction. "Here is a novel that starts at a gallop and then accelerates. Tom Doyle’s invention is sly and continuous, his command of the ins and outs of science fiction adventure is exhilarating. And in the redoubtable Eris, he has created a character who is smart and sexy and more than a little twisted. Border Crosser is a book you won’t soon forget." —James Patrick Kelly, Nebula Award winning author of Burn. "Tom Doyle’s Border Crosser is a hyperkinetic tour of a sprawling solar system and galaxy in a dark and delirious future. Doyle explores the deep, painful and unpleasant aspects of the psyche, showcasing some of the more repellent examples of human behavior, yet manages to bring a surprising amount of decency and affection to his story. The book speeds along at a breakneck pace, and will astonish you, wrench your heart, snatch your breath away, make you laugh, and move you." —Richard Paul Russo, author of Ship of Fools. "The bastard love-child of Philip K. Dick and the Marquis De Sade, BORDER CROSSER will sink into your mind like one of Frank Herbert's stone burners. This is revolutionary science fiction." —David J. Williams, author of The Mirrored Heavens.