I wanted to like this book. It seemed quirky and progressive. It was compared to so many other books that I like (Hitchhiker's Guide, Pynchon, etc.). Well, comparisons are flattering. What I found difficult while reading was making these comparisons throughout the story. This style reminds me of.... Add to this, that I found the storyline a bit confusing to follow, it was not a grabber for me.

Comparisons to another book or author also reminds me of comparisons of one music group to another. Let's take the Talking Heads for example - I love the Talking Heads. When I hear that a new group reminds someone of the Talking Heads, I want to hear the music. If it sounds too much like the T-Heads, or some of the riffs are very similar, than the voice is being emulated and the material seems to be borrowed. With all of this, I have to admit that I did not finish the book.

Here's the thing: When I first read the premise, I thought-- "this is so, so important."
It just didn't live up to my expectations, is all. I feel terrible giving this a bad review but I honestly couldn't finish it. I just could not get into it even halfway through.

I received a print copy of this book from another source but after the first few pages decided this was not something I wanted to read so I past it on to someone else in my library. Sorry.

This book is fun to read for someone who dabbles in sci-fi and alternative histories or prospective futures.
Unfortunately there is no real substance that threads the story along to really care what happens in the end.
I've seen this movie before it's called Idiocracy.

So if you like this kind of thing, which I do, I wouldn't place at the top tier of a book to remember. However, it is written well enough to get through it.
As a note to editor: The title was what peaked my interest but it's ultimately gimmicky for a story that is actually kind of depressed.me.

Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was super excited when I first saw the synopsis for two reasons: 1) I love sci-fi and 2) I love the Hitchkiker’s Guide to the galaxy, which this story was compared to.

The satire of the plot is refreshing, and I did enjoy the adventure that is placed before Truckee. However, the plot does get a bit confusing at times and the story is far longer than it should be.

FKA USA is a dystopian fiction novel. In the formerly known as United States, government corporations are in charge. It's not difficult to imagine the scenario. We have a group of misfits embarking on a journey to save something. It's a formulaic story but still entertaining. The story is funny and sarcastic and witty instead of the usual bleak and dreary future I've read about. It's a good read overall but not the best I've ever read. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Had it not been for the free ARC I received from NetGalley, I would most likely not have finished this book. The overall story arc was a typical quest story. But the incessant use of lingo from the dystopian future was too much. And while the footnotes, which I generally like in a book, were so intrusive in the story, I found that I lost track of the plot while trying to figure out what the background info was. There were also many times where the end of one chapter didn't coincide enough with the beginning of another chapter, and times where there was so much detail it was boring, but others where there was no detail and the tale got lost. King just tried to do too much I think. Also, I know the point was that people are not educated, but the constant use of should/could/would "of" instead of have was unnecessary and confusing.

I thought this one was just so-so. It seemed to have the right stuff but just sort of went through the motions. I'm not saying it was awful, just that I didn't find it engaging. Other readers, especially those who haven't read a lot of this, might get into it.

I’m always up for a dystopia, but had I been aware of this one’s voluminous page count, not sure I would have read it. Conciseness…I’m a huge fan of conciseness, precision, succinctness, just a basic ability to tell a story in, say, 300 pages. 400 if you must. Going close to 500 is seldom justified (and often just self indulgent), unless you’re Tolstoy or similar. But this novel does have a lot to say for all its verbosity. In the near future (end of 2100s) the country Formerly Known As USA is no more. Instead it’s a disjointed conglomerate of city states and territories, some wilder than others and most devastated by environmental and political catastrophes. And one 16 year old (don’t worry, he reads older or at least mature enough) must travel across this new and hostile land on an important mission that might just save the world. But not alone. Truckee is joined by scene stealing companions of android and mammalian persuasion. In fact, the latter, Barnaby, absolutely made the book for me. I didn’t get into it really until he showed up and he carried every scene, absolutely one of the best literary animal creations of all time. Having read and eaten his way through a library, he’s also the smartest of the bunch and…eventually…just as courageous. But Barnaby’s star appeal aside, this book really did have much to offer. It’s an epic journey story and as such it is populated accordingly with strange characters and stranger places, limited only by the author’s imagination, which you’d be quite happy to find out, is pretty limit free. So you get an ultimate quest story and a humorous one at that and although at times exhausting, it’s always entertaining and the main takeaway upon finishing is…what a great adventure. Page count justified. This is fun. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

The future "FKA USA," is a combination of mega-corporation, post-environmental catastrophes, cold wars running hot, Balkanized lands mixed with lawless (and barely inhabitable) flyover country, and a pervasive sense that what's left of humanity isn't too far away from the final curtain, to name just a few of the main ingredients in this gritty world. It's also a future that stings hard with its uncomfortable familiarity, but despite this punch this book will prove hard to set down thanks to a strange cast of characters stuck on an epic (and also absurd) journey that brings new twists and turns with every new chapter.

The setting and bite of "FKA USA" makes it a perfect satire for the current times. But not only that, this book is flat-out one of the most fun reads I've had the pleasure of enjoying in a while. I never knew that humor and post-apocalypse could work together, but here Reed King makes them mix as well as peanut butter and jelly. This is definitely a recommend for anyone to travel to an American that's both like and unlike what they've ever known, and definitely don't mind strapping in for a wild ride.

Imagine if Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Idiocracy had a love child. That would be this book. I am not quite this quirky, almost made-up-as-you-go-along book is my kind of tea, but it is interesting.

FKA stands for "Formerly Known As." Sort of like AKA is "also known as." This novel presents a post-dissolution view of North America after wars, famine, etc., split the country up into different entities ranging from the corporate entities like Crunch to the Free State of Texas. It's now in the 2070's a divided country with borders, different currencies, etc. Crunch is a corporate run country on former Arkansas land, producing artificial chemical foods by workers living in hopeless shantytowns and plagued by drug addiction, boredom, angst. There's still a World Wide Web of sorts, virtual reality, and androids, including mindless automatons, android whores, and androids developing consciousness and feelings. Many area of the country are desolate, depopulated, radioactive, strip-mined, fracked, and others hosting Russian and Chinese colonies. It's sort of Mad Max country outside the corporate factory worlds. But not a dystopia since no one tried to create a utopia.

The book is irreverent, gritty, sarcastic. It pays homage to Hitchhiker's Guide with each chapter featuring a selection from the Grifter's Guide. A sixteen year old nobody makes his way cross country with a metal person (Sam), a Strawman whose brain has been sliced and diced (Tiny Tim), and a talking but cowardly goat ( Barnaby), paying homage to another legendary work. The book doesn't sent always take itself too seriously and there's gallows humor and scat humor abounding.

I enjoyed this a lot as the motley crew explored the world, although their underlying mission was a bit too goofy. I have a sense though the audience for this is more limited than expansive.

There is no doubt Reed King went all out in this novel. He has an epic world with crazy characters. The writing is good, the humor is sly. For me however this book didn't work. Too many sci-fi cliches; dystopian world ran by corporation-government hybrids, a mission of travel that hits bumps along the way, etc.

King shows promise and I would read again, but this one felt like someone who wanted to show everything they got in their debut and ended up throwing in the kitchen sink.