Simon Logan

...Katja decides that things can’t get anymore f*cked up. Of course, she’d had thought the same thought not long ago -- before the mad surgeon, the sweaty cop, and the gang of hoodlum transvestites -- so what did she know?

Get Katja by Simon Logan is a science-fiction punk rock story. Logan is the author of the short story collections I-O, Rohypnol Brides, and Nothing is Inflammable. He has also written the industrial fiction novels Pretty Little Things To Fill Up the Void, and the previous Katja book Katja From The Punk Band.

Get Katja is a wild ride in a day in the life of punk band guitarist and vocalist Katja. Katja is pretty clueless about what is happening. Lady Delicious wants the money the band owes her from a loan band mate Nikolai. Katja is not surprised as Nikolai is a drug addict and that’s the reason he’s not in the band anymore. Lady Delicious wants her money and doesn't care because the loan is made in the band’s name. She takes Katja guitar as collateral until the band is paid for that night’s gig. Irritated but unable to do anything else Katja leaves planning to return that night.

DeBoer is a detective who is a bad gambler and ends up owing Frank money. Unable to come up with the money he finds out that Katja is wanted and decides to capture her as part of his debt payment. DeBoer has a run in with a pink haired nurse after capturing Katja that leaves him passed out on the pavement. Katja wakes up strapped to a hospital bed.

Get Katja is fast moving, interesting, confusing, and a book you do not want to put down. It can best be described as a novelization of a graphic novel. It has that type of story line and feel. Get Katja moves back and forth in time. When one chapter ends, a new one starts from a different character's perspective. All the characters' stories intertwine with the other characters. There is an intricate maze of connections throughout the book. Everyone wants Katja and Katja just wants to play music.

Get Katja is a fun weekend read. It provides plenty of escape and a heavily caffeinated story. It will never be classic literature, but it is one hell of a ride.


… (meer)

Katja from the Punk Band by Simon Logan is the introductory book in the Katja series. Simon is the author of the industrial fiction novel Little Things To Fill Up The Void and three collections of short stories. He is also the author of Get Katja.

A few months ago I read Get Katja, the second book in the series, and loved it. This week I was happy to find Katja from the Punk Band was available to me. I dropped everything else and jumped on this book. I was not disappointed. Katja, along with most people, want off the island and on to the mainland. The island is dreary, dark, and depressing. There are chemical drug gangs and drug lords and life resembles life on the worst side of town. The mainland is may not be perfect, but it is a step up.

Here, as in Get Katja, the story is told from the point at all main characters and the reader will be jumping back and forth in time. When characters encounter each other it leads up to a climax, and then the story back tracks and is told from the other characters view point. It might sound a bit dizzy, going back and forth, but here it is done in such a way that is completely logical and fits well together. Everything revolves around Katja, and she is the nucleus of the book. The other characters move in and out like electrons around the nucleus of an atom sometimes moving closer and other times moving away.

The book's description calls Katja Jackie Brown meets the Sex Pistols, and I am at a loss to come up with a better description. Several plots, several main characters all working together in a punk rock environment makes this book hard to put down. This is not my usual reading material, but as a diversion I find it highly enjoyable. I am a Katja fan.… (meer)

Katja is a young woman with a partially-shaved head and a tracheostomy tube coming out of her throat. Playing in a local punk band on an 8 by 12-mile island work camp called home, like everyone else, she wants to get to the mainland by any way possible.

Katja shoots her boyfriend and takes a very valuable vial from him (perhaps it's a new chemical drug). There will be someone on the mainland waiting for the vial, but the deal is for two people, so Katja enlists the help of Nikolai, a local junkie. The ship is leaving for the mainland in a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, Aleksakhina, Katja's corrupt parole officer, chooses tonight to do his job and detains her for not checking in on schedule. He is not the only one who wants the vial as the ticket to the mainland. There's Vladimir Kohl, a local chemical dealer; there is his boss, Szerynski, along with Dracyev, a rival chemical kingpin, and Ylena, his lover.

Katja and Nikolai regain possession of the vial. Their next problem is getting on the ship. The area is full of police who are authorized to kill anyone who attempts to stow away on the ship. If a stowaway is found on the ship while it is in transit, getting shot and thrown off the ship in the middle of the ocean is the least of their problems. Do Katja and Nikolai board the ship? Do they get off the ship on the mainland, also without the police finding them?

This is a really good industrial crime/suspense tale. The reader can almost hear the punk rock soundtrack all throughout this book. It is raw, fearless and very much worth reading.… (meer)