In an alternate universe, organic, semi-sentient, alien engineered oil field drilling rigs roam the plains of Texas and the Southwest in search of petroleum. Petrogypsies is the first novel in Harper’s series about the great drilling beast, Sprocket, his best friend, Henry Lee MacFarland, and the rowdy, musical crew of “petrogypsies” who travel with them in their quest for fortune, romance, and adventure.
For Sprocket and Henry Lee, it was love at First Blow-Out
Henry Lee MacFarland is a big, ugly man, a farm boy who is so strong that he’s had to learn to be gently, whether he’s dealing with livestock or normal people.
Sprocket is a hundred and twelve feet of healthy young male Driller, dark as a moonless night, with a spiked tongue that can bore four miles into the earth in his relentless quest for the thing he loves best—Texas heavy crude oil.
Doc, Razer, Big Mac, and the others in Sprocket’s crew are the roughest, rowdiest bunch in the oilpatch. They live inside of Sprocket’s body and travel like gypsies from one drilling job to another. They work like animals. Party like ‘em, too.
Then there’s Star, the stunning Casing gypsy who has a hankering for fine cigars, a killer instinct at poker, and a liking for big, ugly, strong men.
Looking for adventure, Henry Lee leaves the farm behind and signs on with Sprocket’s crew.
He gets a helluva lot more “adventure”—as in monsters, mayhem, and murder—than he bargained for.
Review
"Rory Harper's sensibility is warm, earthy, whimsical, cleverly off-center, and, when he wants it to be, bawdy as all get out ... Petrogypsies is a blue-collar, red-neck world where folks sweat and love and work and get hurt ... Petrogypsies has got to be one of the most auspicious debuts of the year." --Ed Bryant, Locus Magazine
About the Author
Rory Harper is a fragile, elderly Texas writer who no longer drives a car. That's because his Shadow 750 ACE motorcycle gets amazing gas mileage, will go faster than most cars, and is also a babe magnet. A deeply religious man, he regularly worships at the altar of the sainted Leo Fender. He possesses half a dozen of St. Fender's sacred relics. Along with Bradley Denton, Steve Gould, Martha Wells, and almost every other Texas writer, he played in the semi-legendary Los Blues Guys blues-rock band, which consistently damaged the hearing of fans at numberless science-fiction conventions during the Nineties. He currently plays lead guitar in the not-yet-semi-legendary Two-Headed Baby blues-rock band. He's had stories published in half of the s-f magazines in existence. Along with other writers more famous than he is, he currently contributes cranky essays, music (which can be freely downloaded), and flash fiction to the semi-legendary group blog at Eat Our Brains. As is readily deduced from the blog's name, he is a zombie freak. He plans to film the music video for his recent song, "Fast Zombie Blues." Rory is the author of Petrogypsies, published by DarkStar Books in Fall 2009, and is working on two sequels, Sprocket Goes International and Sprocket Goes Interstellar. He's halfway through writing the first sequel, also to be published by DarkStar. Unless it's awful. He owns two cats, but isn't gushy about it. He has two tattoos, which he will show you on request. The first one was done by his only known daughter, Rachael, and it's really cool.
Description:
In an alternate universe, organic, semi-sentient, alien engineered oil field drilling rigs roam the plains of Texas and the Southwest in search of petroleum. Petrogypsies is the first novel in Harper’s series about the great drilling beast, Sprocket, his best friend, Henry Lee MacFarland, and the rowdy, musical crew of “petrogypsies” who travel with them in their quest for fortune, romance, and adventure.
For Sprocket and Henry Lee,
it was love at First Blow-Out
Henry Lee MacFarland is a big, ugly man, a farm boy who is so strong that he’s had to learn to be gently, whether he’s dealing with livestock or normal people.
Sprocket is a hundred and twelve feet of healthy young male Driller, dark as a moonless night, with a spiked tongue that can bore four miles into the earth in his relentless quest for the thing he loves best—Texas heavy crude oil.
Doc, Razer, Big Mac, and the others in Sprocket’s crew are the roughest, rowdiest bunch in the oilpatch. They live inside of Sprocket’s body and travel like gypsies from one drilling job to another. They work like animals. Party like ‘em, too.
Then there’s Star, the stunning Casing gypsy who has a hankering for fine cigars, a killer instinct at poker, and a liking for big, ugly, strong men.
Looking for adventure, Henry Lee leaves the farm behind and signs on with Sprocket’s crew.
He gets a helluva lot more “adventure”—as in monsters, mayhem, and murder—than he bargained for.
Review
"Rory Harper's sensibility is warm, earthy, whimsical, cleverly off-center, and, when he wants it to be, bawdy as all get out ... Petrogypsies is a blue-collar, red-neck world where folks sweat and love and work and get hurt ... Petrogypsies has got to be one of the most auspicious debuts of the year." --Ed Bryant, Locus Magazine
About the Author
Rory Harper is a fragile, elderly Texas writer who no longer drives a car. That's because his Shadow 750 ACE motorcycle gets amazing gas mileage, will go faster than most cars, and is also a babe magnet. A deeply religious man, he regularly worships at the altar of the sainted Leo Fender. He possesses half a dozen of St. Fender's sacred relics. Along with Bradley Denton, Steve Gould, Martha Wells, and almost every other Texas writer, he played in the semi-legendary Los Blues Guys blues-rock band, which consistently damaged the hearing of fans at numberless science-fiction conventions during the Nineties. He currently plays lead guitar in the not-yet-semi-legendary Two-Headed Baby blues-rock band. He's had stories published in half of the s-f magazines in existence. Along with other writers more famous than he is, he currently contributes cranky essays, music (which can be freely downloaded), and flash fiction to the semi-legendary group blog at Eat Our Brains. As is readily deduced from the blog's name, he is a zombie freak. He plans to film the music video for his recent song, "Fast Zombie Blues." Rory is the author of Petrogypsies, published by DarkStar Books in Fall 2009, and is working on two sequels, Sprocket Goes International and Sprocket Goes Interstellar. He's halfway through writing the first sequel, also to be published by DarkStar. Unless it's awful. He owns two cats, but isn't gushy about it. He has two tattoos, which he will show you on request. The first one was done by his only known daughter, Rachael, and it's really cool.