Shovel Ready is a science fiction novel by Adam Sternbergh (ISBN 978-0-385-34899-7). It is Sternbergh's first novel and was released on January 14, 2014 by the Crown Publishing Group. A feature film based on the novel is in development by Warner Bros. Erwin Stoff will produce the film. Denzel Washington is expected to play the central role, a hitman in New York City.
For books I typically read, this would be a one-star, but it's intended as entertainment (a la Hunger Games) rather than literature, and with that caveat, it was indeed entertaining. Post-apocalyptic landscapes in which people escape into a Holodeck-style alternate reality is hardly an original premise, but it kept me turning the pages, and it's a quick read.
I think I may be tired of SF/noir crossovers. This one is darker than most, more sparely written than most, but I found the voice flat and the stylistic quirks (lack of dialog tags) annoying. It starts fairly strong, but the latter half feels derivative and repetitive of better work. Meh.
