Charlie Human‘s critically acclaimed debut novel, APOCALYPSE NOW NOW, was published at the beginning of this month in mass market paperback. The novel is published by Century in the UK, Umuzi/Random Struik in South Africa, and is due to be published in the US by Titan Books.

If you haven’t checked it out, yet, we strongly urge that you do! It’s a smorgasbord of fantastical, bizarre, and humorous elements, set in the South African supernatural underground. Here’s the synopsis:

I LOVE THE SMELL OF PARALLEL DIMENSIONS IN THE MORNING

Baxter Zevcenko’s life is pretty sweet. As the 16-year-old kingpin of the Spider, his smut-peddling schoolyard syndicate, he’s making a name for himself as an up-and-coming entrepreneur. Profits are on the rise, the other gangs are staying out of his business, and he’s going out with Esme, the girl of his dreams.

But when Esme gets kidnapped, and all the clues point towards strange forces at work, things start to get seriously weird. The only man drunk enough to help is a bearded, booze-soaked, supernatural bounty hunter that goes by the name of Jackson ‘Jackie’ Ronin.

Plunged into the increasingly bizarre landscape of Cape Town’s supernatural underworld, Baxter and Ronin team up to save Esme. On a journey that takes them through the realms of impossibility, they must face every conceivable nightmare to get her back, including the odd brush with the Apocalypse.

The novel has been praised far and wide by fans, reviewers and Charlie’s peers. Here’s just a small slice of what has been said…

‘It’s mad, dark, irreverent and wonderfully twisted in all the right ways.’  —  Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls

‘With a wild imagination and savage glee, Charlie Human throws us into a school yard battle zone that’s part teenage wasteland, part Lovecraft fever dream. Rock and Roll High School meets the apocalypse.’  —  Richard Kadrey, author of Sandman Slim

‘… a riot – a firebomb of a novel, exploding with sick humour, violence and depravity… it’s never less than very funny, and the ongoing question of Baxter’s sanity adds a degree of mystery. There’s warmth here, too – you’ll likely feel sympathy for Bax by the end.’  —  SFX Magazine

‘… a bowl of fireworks… It has porn-peddling adolescents, ginger bearded monk ninjas, killer crows and zombie-filled sex dungeons ruled over by parasitic mega-spiders. What’s not to love!?!’  —  J For Jetpack

Charlie recently turned in a draft of his follow-up novel, KILL BAXTER, which is due to be published in the UK in July 2014. More news anon!