''The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad'' is a

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

and social

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

written by Canadian writer and activist

Malcolm Azania Malcolm Azania (born 1969), is a Kenyan-Canadian novelist, teacher, writer, and journalist. He is primarily known by his pen name, Minister Faust. In addition to writing science fiction, he is a playwright, journalist, teacher, and poet. He has also ...

under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of "Minister Faust". His first book, it received major international release in August 2004 by the publisher

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

. Unconventionally, the novel is told from eleven points of view employing distinct first-person narrative voices. Set in Edmonton in 1995, it follows two main characters: Hamza, Sudanese-Canadian former honours English student working as a dishwasher, and Yehat, a Trinidadian-Canadian, a video store clerk and inventor. Hamza is also a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, although his faith is somewhat in crisis. Stuck in a rut, their lives are going nowhere until a mysterious woman shows up, seduces Hamza and draws the two into a quest for a magic artifact. The "

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

" is a name that symbolizes an interesting story of his birth. The story that clarifies the name that he chose for himself was shared with the mysterious women. He faithfully believes in the way his name correlates to his character; the strength and the mysteriousness of a sneaky coyote. With good and evil fighting behind the scene known as, the

Secret Society A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence a ...

on a quest to capture the Secret artifact- the

Canopic Jar Canopus (, ; grc-gre, Κάνωπος, ), also known as Canobus ( grc-gre, Κάνωβος, ), was an ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in the Nile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria, around from the cente ...

. The Meanys are bad guys businessmen that create a special cream which resembles the look of

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment'' calls ...

and has the ingredients of human bones. Hazma and his Coyote Crew fight the Meanys to capture the great jar that holds ancient secrets of Egyptian knowledge and to unravel the truth. The quest to find the Canopic jar is action filled with an ending that has a twist. "Minister Faust brings their world alive in a jumpy, hold-nothing-back style," wrote Gerald Jonas in the New York Times Book Review. "Faust anatomizes he Edmonton settingwith the same loving care Joyce brought to early-20th-century Dublin.... Faust's debut novel is a fresh and stylish entertainment." "With an attention to detail and an eye for the absurd," wrote reviewer

Rick Klaw Richard Ira "Rick" Klaw (born December 22, 1967 in Brooklyn, New York), is an American editor, essayist, and bookseller. Biography Rick Klaw is the paternal grandson of Irving Klaw, the photographer and film maker most noted for his bondage photo ...

in the '' Austin Chronicle'', "it is as if Faust channeled

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

to write a

Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work exp ...

novel."

External links

New York Times ReviewHollywood Reporter Review
* ttp://www.infinityplus.co.uk/fantasticfiction/coyotekings.htm reviewat Infinity Plus
Asimov's Science Fiction ReviewBarnes and Noble ReviewPublishers Weekly ReviewBooklist Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, The Canadian science fiction novels 2004 Canadian novels Black Canadian literature Comic science fiction novels Novels set in Alberta Fiction set in 1995