John Ring

Wrecking Civilization Before Lunch John Ring

Appallingly bad inventor Mark Goggin somehow makes a dollhouse defy gravity but can't understand why visiting corporate representatives-including Jenna Telfair, the woman who makes his brain oscillate rather wildly-seem so interested in a floating toy that doesn't go anywhere. But those industrial spies know that if he can make an anti-gravity toy, a flying car is only a matter of time. While Mark's confidence self-destructs like his next project, chief executives worldwide are in a panic, worried that the dollhouse and its mythical flying car successor might transform the world more than the original automobile did. They order the meticulous, frequently annoyed Mr. York and operatives from a dozen global conglomerates to band together to match wits with Mark, Jenna, and his friends, and acquire the dollhouse. Or steal it, whichever keeps them in budget. Mr. York and Mark trade moves like a chess match between scheming six-year-olds who don't know how to play chess. As the unraveling team of spies zeroes in on him, Mark must own up to an embarrassing, shocking secret and then decide whether to destroy his miraculous invention before it's used to mass-produce enormous hovering Cadillacs. Funnier than A Thousand Ways to Overthrow the Government, more controversial than Mother Teresa's love life, friendlier than Genocide For Dummies, and packed with more punch than My Life as an Amoeba, Wrecking Civilization Before Lunch takes on global corporations toe-to-toe and leaves them rolling their eyes. Wrecking Civilization Before Lunch was a Top 10 Finalist in the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition.