Publisher's Synopsis
Women scientists having fun saving the world...unless someone kills them first and steals their tech.
Modern Surprises [is] a delightful adventure story.... This book is tremendous fun, and has a lot of really strong, fascinating characters, most of whom happen to be female. Really groovy stuff, and you should check it out. -Keith R.A. DeCandido, author of Dragon Precinct
Joan's prose is always cool, it's a majority female team and that's such a good title. -Paul Cornell, author of London Falling, The Severed Streets, and Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?
Modern Surprises was no ordinary company: the science division there had secretly developed a portal that would allow them to go to anywhere on Earth. They had a plan: to use the portal as a device to help those in need. However, a billionaire industrialist found out about the portal, and was willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get it for himself. But the Modern Surprises team was not about to let him have it.
A note from the author: if you enjoy television shows that show how science works, Modern Surprises is for you. I definitely had fun with the novel, and intended for the characters to have fun, as well--because I believe science is fun (I have a physics degree). Through the novel, readers experience how technology needs to be tested, how there are are unexpected effects, and how technology doesn't always work in the way the original design indicated it might (and that can be delightful). When the characters find that the portal, Arachne, responds to music, it adds yet another dimension to the technology. I hope you'll have fun with the story, too.
