The War Against The Assholes

Description

Mike Wood is a teenager at a decidedly unprestigious Catholic school in Manhattan, accustomed to solving problems using brawn rather than brains.

One day, his nerdy classmate Hob Callahan persuades him to read a mysterious old book of unknown authorship, The Calendar of Slights. On the face of things, the book is a guide to performing clever card tricks; but in fact, it is a test for recruiting new members to join a secret cell of radical magicians.

Amazingly, Mike passes with flying colours unlocking not only his potential magic powers - but also the door to New York City's vast and hidden underground network of warlocks, sorcerers and mages.

Here, with Hob as his unlikely guide, Mike's role as a steadfast soldier begins. For there is a war being waged. A war between rivaling factions of magicians that has spanned the ages. A clandestine war against the establishment: a war against The Assholes.

Reviews

Somehow Sam Munson has you believing in his urban-teen-grift-noir-magician-brawl from paragraph one. WAR AGAINST THE ASSHOLES is original, sharp and mean and it crackles with attitude and style. Death to the assholes! Long live the assholes! -- Paul Tremblay, author of A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS Lev Grossman's The Magicians series on acid SFSignal I would give a thumbs up merely for the title alone: Fortunately, there's more to the book than the fabulous title -- John Scalzi

Author description

Sam Munson is the author of The November Criminals and The War Against the Assholes. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, n+1, The Times Literary Supplement, The Wall Street Journal, The National, The Daily Beast, Commentary, Tablet, The New York Observer, The Utopian, and numerous other publications.