---
product_id: 8658077
title: "Shovel Ready: A Spademan Novel Paperback – October 14, 2014"
brand: "adam sternbergh"
price: "€ 30.02"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.fi/products/8658077-shovel-ready-a-spademan-novel-paperback-october-14-2014
store_origin: FI
region: Finland
---

# Shovel Ready: A Spademan Novel Paperback – October 14, 2014

**Brand:** adam sternbergh
**Price:** € 30.02
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Shovel Ready: A Spademan Novel Paperback – October 14, 2014 by adam sternbergh
- **How much does it cost?** € 30.02 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.fi](https://www.desertcart.fi/products/8658077-shovel-ready-a-spademan-novel-paperback-october-14-2014)

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- adam sternbergh enthusiasts

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- Trusted adam sternbergh brand quality
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## Description

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## Images

![Shovel Ready: A Spademan Novel Paperback – October 14, 2014 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NV0Zq0RhL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A refreshing and engrossing debut
  

*by J***A on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 18, 2014*

I will be honest and admit I wasn't overly convinced of this novel right away; as a lover of William Gibson and Warren Ellis, the setting and premise felt a bit too familiar and overall the ground felt a bit well-tread. I knew right away I'd probably not be disappointed because this kind of gritty, noir speculative fiction is deeply in my wheelhouse, but I wasn't sure it was going to live up to the expectations I had been building up for it for months.In the end, I had really been swept up by this book, which manages to be more than the sum of its parts, which is not necessarily a knock on the parts. Adam Sternbergh has an obvious talent for pace and a heavily stylized narrative voice. The plot remains a bit well-worn, a heavy-drinking hitman anti-hero meandering about a dirty-bombed New York City full of shanty camp towns and the rich plugged into yet another flavor of a Matrix-like mass hallucinatory cyberspace bites off big on a strange job that only gets stranger. But Sternbergh is a fine storyteller and more than competently ushers along an engrossing tale. But the real strength here is in the frenetic tempo of the entire story, the way tension is elevated higher and higher and kept taut through the end.The real danger of writing in a familiar genre is too easily falling into tired tropes and half-hearted style, and the book manages to mostly avoid it; the grit and noir are convincing and textured, rubbing the right away and making sure it burns. I really can't commend enough Sternbergh's risky approach to style, rapidly hammering one scene into the next with staccato, almost absurdly lean prose. The culminating effect feels like an action movie or graphic novel, with things getting hot early and never settling into any downtime.I was happy to learn, as I suspected, that this isn't a standalone debut but that at least one more 'Spademan' novel is in the works. I look forward to seeing how these characters and this refreshing approach to pace and structure bear out with more time. The world Sternbergh has created may not be as ultimately unique, but it's an enjoyable nod to its predecessors and well worth spending your time in.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Chinatown Meets Inception
  

*by P***S on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 22, 2014*

I enjoyed this book immensely.  The narrative is very fast, very dark, very gritty.  The writing is sharp and economical.  The story takes place in a vividly drawn NYC of the future, yet has a noir feel. I suspect readers will either like the clipped, first-person style instantly, as I did, or they will hate it.The book borrows from many other books and movies, but stands on its own. Its like Chinatown, but darker. Its like Neuromancer, but not as high-tech. Its like Inception, but not as convoluted.A couple minor beefs. The early detective story does not work so well. Things seem too easy. Finding a missing person is simply a matter of talking to a couple of random people living in a random camp. Finding a guy based on a witness's account of a tattoo is a simple internet search. The author rationalizes, "there's some amount of dumb luck involved in this undertaking."And a couple of times when characters refer to their own behavior as cliche (ie: "I know its a cliche to be a hard drinker in my profession") it felt to me like an unnecessary apology.Some have called this book cyberpunk. Maybe so. But as sci-fi goes, this book is very short on the science. That was ok by me, but don't expect much in the way of explanation. This book is about mood, not technology.I will be interested to hear how other New Yorkers react to this book, given that NYC is depicted as an utter cesspool. I work in NYC, and while this book depicts a future NYC after some very bad things have happened, it still felt real to me.  Maybe that is my midwest roots talking. Some NYers might be bothered by the depiction of their city in this book. Then again,  I know many NYers who, for reasons I cannot comprehend, miss the dirt and grime of 70's era Times Square, so maybe this book will make them feel nostalgic.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Weirdsville
  

*by E***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 22, 2014*

This is girl with a dragon tattoo taken to a new level of sado-masachism.  - - We have a hitman who turns sentimental; weapon of choice: a box-cutter.  We have a customer who IS sado: a multi-millionaire TV evangelist who brings his "Crystal Corral" to Madison Square Garden.  HIs favorite way to do his daughter's Saturday night bath every week is by water-boarding her in the basement of his mansion.  The target is this fiend's daughter; waterboarding her each week isn't good enough to remedy the porn pictures her boyfriend has taken of her.  No, she needs to go.  But the hitman has his code;  no victim can be under age 18.  Don't worry; she is 18, just barely.  But wait!  She's pregnant.  Can't kill her without killing the fetus, who of course isn't old enough for him to kill.  By the way, her weapon of choice is a bowie knife she carries in her boot (not a shoe bomber, a shoe knifer) and she definitely knows how to use it and has a list of victims already.  She is of course on the lam from Daddy-Evangelist.  - - Of course the hitman becomes her protector, her avenger, her friend.  In the process he must ward off several other aggressors that daddy has also put on her trail.  There is blood everywhere - - anyone and any place.  Sometimes by the hitman; sometimes by Daddy's men.  - - - So far I haven't mentioned the sci-fi.  Oh yes, we have Paved in Gold, heaven by tapping yourself to some kind of set-up that comatoses you and sends you "off-body" into virtual never-neverland where you live your dreams.  The author explains it, but I can't.  Take it on faith.  - - - If you are squeamish, don't read this book.  But I liked it and I liked Sterbergh's writing style.  Breezy, upbeat, with it.  It's entertainment.  Absolutely nothing worthwhile that I can think of.

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*Product available on Desertcart Finland*
*Store origin: FI*
*Last updated: 2026-02-13*