The Amadeus Net

By Mark A. Rayner

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart walks into the sex change clinic, determined to have his “sprouter” snipped off. So begins The Amadeus Net, a satirical novel set in the year 2028, which explores art, love, and identity at the end of the world. For more than two centuries, the one-time wunderkind has kept his existence secret while he tried to understand his immortality. Living in style through funds raised by selling “lost” Mozart works, he has also helped to create Ipolis, a utopian city-state, after the cataclysmic Shudder, a global disaster caused by an asteroid strike in 2015.

But a few complications mar Mozart’s utopia. The woman he loves is a lesbian, which, paradoxically, makes him forget about his sex-change plans. The world’s greatest reporter knows he’s still alive and will stop at nothing to expose him. The stakes are higher than he knows, because if the reporter finds him, so will the spy planning to sell Mozart’s DNA to the highest bidder. Oh, and, by the way, the world might end in seven days. His only allies are a psychotic American artist, a bland Canadian diplomat, and the city itself: a sapient, thinking machine that is screwing up as only a sapient, thinking machine can.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark A. Rayner
• Release date: Jul 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9780986662768

Mark A. Rayner

Human-shaped, monkey-loving, robot-fighting, pirate-hearted, storytelling junkie, Mark is actually Canadian. By day he is a university prof and by night, a writer of humorous, satirical and fabulist novels, squibs and other drivel. (Some pure, and some quite tainted with meaning.) The Fatness is his newest novel. The Fridgularity (2012) won an IndieReader Discovery Prize for best humor. Pirate Therapy and Other Cures is a collection of short fiction. Marvellous Hairy is his second novel. His first book, The Amadeus Net, is heavier on the robots.You can read more of his fiction (for free) at his website where you can also dig into his irregular and explosive blog, The Skwib (markarayner.com). Follow him at Twitter (@markarayner) or on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RaynerWriting).

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Reviews for The Amadeus Net

[bibleeohfile_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved the premise of this novel--I have a thing for post-apocalyptic stories--and loved that the novel wasn't just from Mozart's point-of-view, but from all of the main characters, including One's. Truthfully, I found One's point-of-view to be the most interesting. It reminded me very much of the robots in I, Robot who take over to "protect" humanity from itself; One was very much like that, controlling what and who came into Ipolis, stopping information from being sent out (information that would have harmed Mozart), and trying to stop the war between the North (the haves) and the South (the have-nots). The other characters had compelling stories and I loved how many of their stories were wrapped around Mozart's. We have Bella, the psychopathic artist, born after the Shudder who grew up with her survivalist father. She's beautiful, twisted, insane, and completely devoted to her art. There's Les, the boring Canadian diplomat with an obsession for Helen Printo, a self-serving investigative reporter who will stop at nothing to get a story. She's "friendly" with Alex Burton, a cruel, former black-ops solider who is desperate to get the funds together for an upcoming trip into outer space. He's got plans to sell Mozart to the highest bidder. Oh, and we can't forget Katerina, the beautiful Czech woman Mozart has found himself in love with. Did I mention she's a lesbian? Or that she's half in love with Helen Printo, and half in lust with Bella? And it wasn't just the characters and their stories that I found so compelling, but the ideas that this novel incorporated into the story. Like how do you define your worth in a society where money doesn't exist? Or what is art, how is it defined, and how far should someone be allowed to go to produce? And what about the idea of the truth at all costs? I don't really think we want a transparent society, no matter how much we want the truth. I haven't even touched on the idea of immortality (through living forever and through works of art) or artificial intelligence. Honestly, the idea of AIs scares me. I don't want one thing, one intelligent computer running my life, not ever. The Amadeus Net was a very thought-provoking novel and I'm looking forward to my rereading of it this summer. There was so much to take in, I'm sure I missed something. And I still haven't made up my mind about the ending; it's kind of left up in the air. Or is it?

[laurahaggart · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I didn’t think I was a big fan of the science fiction genre, but Rayner may have just converted me.The novel is elaborately planned out and detailed. The characters especially stand out as being intricate and meticulously created. Every single character in this novel held my interest and had me wanting more. You find yourself fully immersed in everyone’s back story. I’d love a full novel on Bella Gunn alone – a character unlike any I’ve read about before. Rayner’s novel is dense, but enjoyably so. It’s definitely a story you could read over and over again and always discover something new. It’s much different than his other work, but just as excellent.At first glance, The Amadeus Net seems like a bizarre tale of a post-apocalyptic world, but on a deeper reading, we see it’s not too far off from our own present lives. That in itself makes the novel even more compelling.

[fujiwark_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is 2028 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, posing as Will Armstrong, is alive and composing. The immortal who has survived history's greatest challenges including its most recent, the asteroid strike called "the Shudder," now finds his identity at risk. But the science and arts utopia in which he resides, Ipolis or the sapient machine One, favors Mozart above all its citizens and goes to extreme measures to ensure his safety.What unfolds is a comedic opera with an intricate plot. While Mozart pines for the sexually confused sex-change clinic nurse Katerina, investigative journalist Helen Printo and spy Alex Burton scheme to catch the immortal, Canadian diplomat Lester Parson ponders his role in the North vs. South nuclear war as well as his empty love life, and sadistic art student Bella Gunn searches for the emotion that first drew her to painting, One works to keep the world safe. Each character delivers his/her own song, a story of his/her past, and as the work progresses these distinct threads join to create an unlikely symphony.Rayner's novel sets the most timeless themes of love, identity, and art in a technological world endangered by greed and corruption. Individual viewpoints recount personal pasts and solidify Ipolis as the nurturing utopia. But Mozart remains at the center of this humorous story, weighing his secret immortality as the world approaches self-destruction.

[markarayner_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A recent review (not mine):“Strange? Yes. Implausible? No, because Rayner successfully crafts an inherent logic into his surreal story with a collage of plausible first-person narratives, which includes the first-person ‘thinking machine’ narrative of the actual setting of the story—the post-apocalyptic, utopian city-state of Ipolis, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.“Furthermore, Rayner’s flair for sustained humor, and compelling story telling enhances the preposterous premises, characterizations, and worthy themes of art, love, and the search for self-identity and sex in the day-to-day existence of an eclectic cast of characters making their way through the end of the world.” — Janet Paszkowski, Flash Me Magazine (April 2009)

[blewis89_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In the novel “The Amadeus Net, Mark A. Rayner has imagined a post-apocalyptic world in which machines have developed a conscious, Mozart is still alive in 2028 and the parts of the world that survived after the acpolayptic episode, the Shudder, are attempting to obliterate each other with nukes. (Oh, right. That last part doesn’t sound so much like fiction, does it?) The reader is taken to Ipolis, a utopia in the southern hemisphere for those able to escape the devastated parts of the world. For the most part, admittance is permitted only to artists of some kind with the exception of a few wealthy inhabitants who must turn their money over to Ipolis. It is a land that has abolished work for monetary gain and is made up of people all creating passionate art for art’s sake. It is also under the operation of ‘One’, the collective conscious identity of the computers that operate Ipolis. The story is infused with sensational characters that feel realistic emotions and combat realistic internal issues. Mozart (or Will, as he is called in the 21st century) has found himself in quite a predicament. Blessed (or cursed) with eternal life, he is on the verge of being discovered and decides he must alter his appearance by switching genders. In the meantime, he falls in love with a lesbian who doesn’t feel the same. Bella was raised in the Canadian wilderness until she was a teen and her father was killed. It is a constant struggle for her to control her carnal desires that manifest themselves in dangerous ways, such as murder. Katerina is a nurse in Dr. So’s Sex Change clinic, where she assists others in making their decision whil she struggles with her own sexuality. Also among these are Helen Printo, a reporter on the prowl for Mozart and who also contributed to the worldwide nuclear crisis via her reporting and Burton, who is trying to find Mozart so he can sell him to scientists and fund his way to Mars. “The Amadeus Net” touches on a variety of relevant social issues and raises questions on every page. How far away are we from computers controlling us? If it happens, do we even have a prayer of retaining power? And what about that nuke situation? For me, Mozart’s eternal life made me question what the world will be like in 200 years. If anything resembling Rayner’s imagination comes true, who knows what the state of the world will be.

[sarahrae03 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Set in the year 2028, shortly after the destruction of half of the world’s population due to an asteroid-Earth collision (known as The Shudder), "The Amadeus Net," by Mark Rayner, tells the story of love and survival in Ipolis, the man-made utopia dedicated to the preservation of art and to scientific exploration. While Ipolis itself may appear to be paradise, the world around it is certainly not. Divided still by wealth, the world is put in danger of destruction by the religious fanatics of the poverty-stricken South, who give the North an ultimatum: Distribute wealth and resources fairly, or suffer global annihilation. Living among this global turmoil, in Ipolis, are: Bella, the sadistic artist struggling with her past as a warrior-like survivor of The Shudder; Les, the Canadian consulate desperately and obsessively in love with Helen Printo, a world famous reporter; Alex Burton, the power-driven egoist determined to rule Mars; and the beautiful Katerina, who is set on chasing after unattainable women, and yet is loved by a man.Run by One, the mind of the Ipolis machine, the inhabitants of this futuristic civilization are under constant surveillance and surrounded by technology: their multifunctional data-pads, 3Vs (the future’s TV equivalent), robotic bartenders, etc. However, one citizen of Ipolis is monitored by One more closely than the rest: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, believed to have died in 1791. The 272-year-old composer, in love with Katerina, now goes by the name of Will Armstrong, yet continues to compose the music of Mozart. This does not become a problem until dedicated news reporter Helen Printo is set on discovering the truth, and One becomes intent on keeping the man safe."The Amadeus Net" is a compelling read from start to finish, containing engaging characters, an intricate plot, and powerful insight into what it means to be human in post, and possibly pre, apocalyptic Ipolis. Most poignant to me was its examination of the nature of art, love, and sex: What drives an individual to love and to create? How important is the existence of art? It delves also into the mind of the computer as it controls its “children,” the people of Ipolis, and reworks their fates. I wonder too: How do the members of a technologically advanced society still maintain freedom, privacy, and a unique identity?

[shelfmonkey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Think of all the great opening lines in literature;Call me Ishmael. It was a pleasure to burn. Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York.Each prepares the reader, albeit subtly, with a taste of what is to come. The stark reality of Moby Dick. The bleak cynicism of Fahrenheit 451. The soulful bitterness that is Richard III. Each unconsciously follows the old writer's axiom that a novel must somehow grab the audience with the very first sentence.Now, try this one on for size:“Mozart walked into the sex-change clinic on a cold, snowy July morning, intending to have his sprouter snipped off.”If the axiom is true, Canadian author Mark A. Rayner appears to have followed it to the letter.The Amadeus Net, the debut novel from Rayner, is a bizarre, often hysterical piece of futuristic satire. With an imagination reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, a satirical bent a la Tom Robbins, and a sense of humour derived equally from episodes of The Goon Show and the literature of Neal Stephenson, The Amadeus Net is an offbeat and wonderfully droll exercise in sustained amusement.In the year 2028, the planet is in political and economic uproar, having barely survived “the Shudder,” a catastrophe of epic proportions. “A massive meteor . . . had struck the Antarctic pole, at a velocity forty times that of a bullet. It punched through the earth's crust and shifted the earth on its axis - causing earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic explosions.” Now, eighteen years later, the remaining nations are on the threshold of nuclear annihilation, as the distinctions between the haves and the have-nots become blatantly apparent.Ignorant of this strife is the citizenry of the utopian city of Ipolis, a city designed as a sanctuary for the best and brightest in the world, a city where currency is unimportant, artistic achievement is nurtured, and scientific breakthroughs occur on a regular basis. Ipolis also has emerged as a fully functioning intelligence, tracking those inhabitants it finds interesting while keeping an eye on an ever-increasing tension between rogue nations outside its borders. In fact, Ipolis may be very well on its way to an eventual emergence as Earth's newest, most powerful deity.Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (yes, that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), having lived a clandestine existence for over two centuries, finds himself in peril of detection, as an 'undiscovered' Mozart manuscript he released to earn money has been discovered to be a fraud, age tests indicating the document is less than sixty years old. “Of course, the whole thing probably never would have come to light if it wasn't for the orange stains of the composition, caused by a deadly combination of sloppiness and Cheesy-Os.”Compounding the dilemma, Mozart has now come down with a tragic case of crippling lust, with the luscious nurse he meets during his sex-change consultation. A tenacious journalist is quickly cluing in to his identity. A retired mercenary schemes to sell Mozart's DNA (and, one hopes, the secret to immortality) to the highest bidder. And a new acquaintance, a painter of extraordinary works who happens to be tremendously sexually sadistic, just may very well be completely psychotic to boot.As in the works of Philip K. Dick, what makes Rayner's story engaging is his unadulterated disinclination to wink condescendingly to the audience. While not quite the stylist Dick was, Rayner commits himself absolutely to his narrative; no matter how outlandish and eccentric Mozart's exploits becomes, Rayner makes sure that the world he creates functions under its own inherent logic. As Ipolis begins to test its abilities, wielding unfathomable power on the world stage while keeping its inhabitants happy and content, so, too, Rayner flexes his mind to keep his characters humming while the world around them threatens to burn.Like the best science fiction, Amadeus is also a recognizable distortion of our own warped reality. As the effects of the Shudder finally begin to decline, the “Southern Union” of poorer countries demands the Northern countries surrender the equivalent of their GDP. “'Pay up, or die out!' was the cry of the poorer nations. Of course, they realized it was suicidal, but what did they really have to lose? Besides, many of the people in fundamentalist nations - both Christian and Islamic - felt that the next life would be better than this one anyway. The End of Days, woo!”The greatest flaw of Amadeus (and it is minor considering the wealth of entertainment to be found within its pages) is that Rayner takes aim at too many topics, a scattershot approach that dilutes the story's effectiveness; an approach, incidentally, which haunted many of Dick's works as well. Mozart's problems become superseded by those of the maniac artist, who in turn loses focus to the bountiful nurse, whose story is then overwhelmed by that of a Canadian bureaucrat. By the finale, there have been so many characters, so many points of view, that Ranyer's ultimate point is lost.But how long has it been since a novel's worst aspect is that it tries too hard? At a time when the bestseller lists are dominated by the continuous, unenthusiastic, and barely literate conspiracy ramblings of a Hardy Boys wannabe, a story that makes you think and laugh is almost a hidden treasure. The Amadeus Net is a wonderful first novel, thoughtful and engaging. To close on the hopeful last words of Mozart himself, “Everyone laugh! Fart, and laugh! Then compose something beautiful.”