The Odds: A Post-Apocalyptic Action-Comedy (The Deadblast Chronicles) - Softcover

"The Odds harkens me back to childhood: under the covers with a flashlight, following characters I loved through worlds I desperately wanted to explore. From the opening pages to the "chess" thing (a brilliant sequence, worth the price of admission alone), The Odds is engaging, inventive, and fun. Peterson has a clear voice, and layers humor into his prose effortlessly. I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does next with The Remnants." --Dalan Musson, screenwriter, Iron Sky and Iron Sky 2: The Coming Race "It's full-bore sci-fi/postapocaylptic writing where the writing is actually good, not just functional. The dialogue sizzles. The sentences are packed with radioactive imagery and double-barreled zingers. The paragraphs grab you by your eye sockets and scream in your ears 'til they bleed while repeatedly punching you in the face--and you love every second of it." --Karl Mueller, writer/director of Rebirth (Netflix Studios) and Mister Jones (Anchor Bay Films) "The best way I can describe this book is like a magnificent lovechild of Big Trouble in Little China and Mad Max: Fury Road. This novel is endlessly inventive, well written, and extremely hard to put down. I highly recommend it if you want to get your action-humor, postapocalyptic sci-fi fix on. Five very well deserved stars. I would describe it further; the twists and surprises of the plot, the looping beauty of the prose, the straight up cool of the characters but I don't want to spoil it for you. Do yourself a favor and buy the book already!" --J.M. Perkins, Author and Game Designer "I'd describe The Odds as one part western, one part Hunger Games, and one part chess. The hero is incredibly engaging." --Kristine Chester, Fanbase Press "Robert J. Peterson's The Odds is a thrill ride that lovers of the weird and wondrous will be happy to sink their teeth into. Following the epic hero Eldridge on a quest to earn money for his mysterious family, this book takes us on a clever path through a postapocalyptic hellscape where even the sun is a deadly enemy. Fighting battles through a series of mini-bosses in the game of Xiang, Eldridge must finally confront someone from his troubled past to achieve his goals, with plenty of interesting and original characters along the way. Funny, violent, and imaginative, The Odds is a world that will swallow you whole and spit you out gooey on the other side." --Brad Grusnick, Author of the Homeless Homicide Series"The world-building in The Odds is amazing. Robert J. Peterson has created a fully developed society with political and social structures." --Jodi Scaife, Book Blogger "The Odds is a deliciously odd book. It's a post-apocalyptic novel that really defies pigeon-holing. It is sort of sci-fi, sort of fantasy, sort of a farcical comedy, sort of ... I really don't know what. (...) Peterson makes it work." --Jonathan K, Science-Fiction-Review.com "Readers with a taste for grotesque zaniness may enjoy this venture." --Publisher's Weekly

The apocalypse happened, but no one knows how. What's left is a barren world ruled by a high-powered caste of bookies, The Odds. Scurrying around underneath is our hero, Eldridge--a big-hearted, bumbling drifter with an estranged family he loves dearly. He's deep in debt and deathly sick, so he places a bet predicting the day he'll die. If he wins, he can go to his grave knowing that his family will be safe, but when he returns to his hometown to collect, he gets some bad news: He's going to live. So it's on to plan B--a high-stakes battle-tournament that pits real-life chess avatars against each other in random-chance brawls-to-the-death. But Eldridge doesn't know that someone's gamed the tournament to pit him against an old friend who's now a bitter enemy. Now he's got to make all the right moves to save his family--and beat the Odds.