Nova Trilogy

In The Soft Machine, William S. Burroughs begins an adventure that will take us into the dark recesses of his imagination, a region where nothing is sacred, nothing taboo. Continuing his ferocious verbal assault on hatred, hype, poverty, war, bureaucracy, and addiction in all its forms, Burroughs gives us a surreal space odyssey through the wounded galaxies in a book only he could create.A total assault on the powers that turn humans into machines by writing and fixing our life scripts, Burroughs' original "cut-up" book was itself rewritten in three different forms. This new edition of The Soft Machine clarifies for the first time the extraordinary history of its writing and rewriting, demolishes the myths of his chance-based writing methods, and demonstrates for a new generation the significance of Burroughs' greatest experiment.

In The Ticket That Exploded, William S. Burroughs' grand "cut-up" trilogy that starts with The Soft Machine and continues through Nova Express reaches its climax as inspector Lee and the Nova Police engage the Nova Mob in a decisive battle for the planet. Only Burroughs could make such a nightmare vision of scientists and combat troops, of ad men and con men whose deceitful language has spread like an incurable disease, be at once so frightening and so enthralling.

The third and final installment in Burroughs' Nova trilogy, this surrealist novel is part sci-fi, part Swiftian parody, pure Burroughs. The Soft Machine introduced us to the conditions of a universe where endemic lusts of the mind and body prey upon men, hook them, and turn them into beasts. Nova Express takes William S. Burroughs' nightmarish futuristic tale one step further. The diabolical Nova Criminals, Sammy the Butcher, Green Tony, Iron Claws, the Brown Artist, Jacky Blue Note, and Izzy the Push, to name only a few, have gained control and plan on wreaking untold destruction. It's up to Inspector Lee of the Nova Police to attack and dismantle the word and imagery machine of these 'control addicts' before it's too late.