Standalone Novels In Publication Order
- Syrup (1999)
- Jennifer Government (2002)
- Company (2006)
- Machine Man (2008)
- Lexicon (2013)
- Providence (2020)
- The 22 Murders of Madison May (2021)
Standalone Novels Book Covers
Max Barry Books Overview
Syrup
When Scat comes up with the idea for the hottest new soda ever, he’s sure he’ll retire the next rich, savvy marketing success story. But in the treacherous waters of corporate America there are no sure things and suddenly Scat has to save not only his idea but his yet to be realized career. With the help of the scarily beautiful and brainy 6, he sets out on a mission to reclaim the fame and fortune that, time and again, eludes him. This brilliantly scathing debut is a hilarious send up of celebrity, sexual politics, corporate America, and the fleeting status that comes with getting to the table first before the other guy has you for lunch.’Seductively hip…
Wickedly funny.’ USA Today’Scathingly funny.’ Fort Worth Star Telegram
Jennifer Government
Jennifer Government is Here to Help!In Max Barry’s twisted, hilarious vision of the near future, the world is run by giant American corporations except for a few deluded holdouts like the French; taxes are illegal; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; The Police and The NRA are publicly traded security firms; the U.S. government may only investigate crimes if they can bill a citizen directly. It s a free market paradise!Hack Nike is a lowly Merchandising Officer who s not very good at negotiating his salary. So when John Nike and John Nike, executives from the promised land of Marketing, offer him a contract, he signs without reading it. Unfortunately, Hack s new contract involves shooting teenagers to build up street cred for Nike s new line of $2,500 sneakers. Scared, Hack goes to The Police, who assume he s asking for a subcontracting deal and lease the assassinations to the NRA. Soon Hack finds himself pursued by Jennifer Government, a tough talking agent with a barcode tattoo under her eye and a rabid determination to nail John Nike the boss of the other John Nike. In a world where your job title means everything, the most cherished possession is a platinum credit card, and advertising jingles give way to automatic weapons in the fight for market share, Jennifer Government is the consumer watchdog from hell. Jennifer Government is the kind of novel that can become a byword a Catch 22 for the New World Order, a satire both broad and pointed, deeply funny and disturbingly on target. From the Hardcover edition.
Company
Nestled among Seattle’s skyscrapers, The Zephyr Holdings Building is a bleak rectangle topped by an orange and black logo that gives no hint of Zephyr’s business. Lack of clarity, it turns out, is Zephyr’s defining characteristic. The floors are numbered in reverse. No one has ever seen the CEO or glimpsed his office on the first i.e., top floor. Yet every day people clip on their ID tags, file into the building, sit at their desks, and hope that they’re not about to be outsourced. Stephen Jones, a young recruit with shoes so new they squeak, reports for his first day in the Training Sales Department and finds it gripped by a crisis involving the theft of a donut. In short order, the guilty party is identified and banished from the premises and Stephen is promoted from assistant to sales rep. He does his best to fit in with his fellow workers among them a gorgeous receptionist who earns more than anyone else, and a sales rep who’s so emotionally involved with her job that she uses relationship books as sales manuals but Stephen is nagged by a feeling that the Company is hiding something. Something that explains why when people are fired, they are never heard from again; why every manager has a copy of the Omega Management System; and most of all, why nobody in the Company knows what it does.’Always entertaining, Dufris reads this story of corporate revolt with comic timing and tongue firmly planted in cheek, making it an ideal audiobook to enjoy on one’s way to work.’ AudioFile
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