Aztechs (Signed First Edition)

These copies are "author" copies (sent directly to the author) and therefore are not numbered but does have the special limited edition page which were signed by Lucius. (see scan). The signature you will receive will be similar to the one shown. I have 3 copies. The books are new but their is some light damage to the book covers. (some coffee spots on one, some impressions on the other two).

In this unsettling new novella, Shepard (The Jaguar Hunter, etc.) returns to the near-future setting of his Nebula Award-winning story, "R&R" (later part of Life During Wartime). El Rayo, the bustling border community grown up along the electrified fence along the U.S./Mexican border, is home to Eddie Poe, who earns his living by providing security. The men he hires are AWOL U.S. soldiers called "Sammys" because of their addiction to the reflex- and strength-enhancing combat drug Samurai (aka Sammy). AZTECH, a mysterious high-tech firm rumored to be run by a renegade U.S. military AI named Montezuma, hires Eddie and his bodyguards to join AZTECH representative Montezuma 2 ("Z2") for a meeting with the Carbonell cartel. When the meeting goes sour and Z2 is badly wounded, one of the Sammys, Lawton Childers, lobs a pocket nuke to cover their escape, and Eddie realizes he's no longer in control. Childers and the other Sammys intend to use Z2 to break into the AZTECH compound and take out Montezuma and his followers, and Eddie and his TV journalist girlfriend Guadalupe are caught in the middle. Fortunately for Montezuma, AZTECH has technological defenses even a Sammy can't defeat. Eddie's pragmatic voice is perfect for this story of people whose only hope for the future is an AI with a messiah complex. One gets the feeling that the author has only begun here, that this novella could grow into a novel, as did "R&R." We can only hope that's what Shepard thinks, too.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Shepard's novella is set in a world not terribly far in the future, but far enough. An escaped AI that calls itself Montezuma is running the high-tech corporation AZTECHS, and Eddie runs a security service. Everything in Mexicali, where Eddie grew up, has taken on the bloody red light of El Rayo, the laser fence that guards the U.S.-Mexican border. Eddie has been hired to take an AZTECHS representative to talk business with the Carbonell family cartel in their stronghold, the former cathedral Nuestra Senora del Rayo. Unfortunately, the deal goes a bit sour, and Eddie and Z2, the man he was hired to protect, must flee to the desert. Then Z2 wants to visit Montezuma in the desert. Meanwhile, one of Eddie's security men wants to kill Montezuma in the desert. Eddie and Guadalupe, a rising star in the cutthroat world of television, mostly just want to survive. A good story in a small package, with a neat twist on the AI concept. Regina Schroeder
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