GoodReads reviews

GoodReads Reviews

Jim Beckmann rated it it was amazing

Planning on re-reading this as all I really remember was that I really liked it. It will be interesting this time around to read a future history set in 2007. 9/12/13 Just finished it. Even better than I remember. So much going on in this story but it never gets confusing. What I liked most were the political commentaries of the main character. He was a peripheral member of the anti war movement till a chance encounter puts him in the middle of the action. Though this book comes from a left perspective, there is extensive critique of all manner of leftist ideologies and actions. He dissects the good from the bad in Marxist/Leninism, Anarchism, violence, non violence, consensus, etc. This book is so many things, a detective story, a future history, science fiction, and a commentary on politics, and relationships. Refreshing and rare to see an author so thoroughly take apart his side of the political fence. highly recommend this book.

Smiley McGrouchpants rated it it was amazing

G. A. Matiasz’s mini-opus covers an awful lot of ground in just over 200 pages; considering the ideological (as in: the thought patterns people subscribe to, and the divergences that occur when they try to put them into practice) and mechanics (who knew this much about computers who was writing fiction in ’97 — except Gibson, Sterling, and Shirley?) apparati which drive the people in this high-caliber work of speculative fiction, you wonder why so much other acclaimed stuff is, by comparison, so half-awake and lazy.

AK Press brought out a winner! Try and catch up. Be as surprised as I was.

Amazon reviews

Amazon Reviews

Well-thought Out, Anarchist, Sci-Fi
By Britt A. Green on July 3, 2000
Format: Paperback

This author writes under the name of Lefty Hooligan for the stalwart punk zine, Maximum Rock-and-Roll. Enjoying his column, I eagerly bought this book when I found it in the catalogue of AK Press.

My money was really well spent. Make no mistake about this: “Lefty” gets his nickname because he is far to the left of Ralph Nader. Fans of Tom Clancy will probably not enjoy this. His politics are intertwined with an amazing story of a student uprising in the near future Bay Area.

Unlike a lot of far left literature, all of his characters are very human. The author never falls into the easy trap of using caricatures of people. Everyone is very believable, and even the government agents can be sympathetic.
Furthermore, Lefty is an incredibly intelligent and rational writer. His reasoning is very well thought out (both in terms of politics and story progression.) As hinted at above, this book is very pragmatic and realistic. It avoids the typical extremist idealism that permeates many other books of the genre.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good piece of anarchist literature. The fact that its somewhat sci-fi is a definate plus, as well! ….

A great piece of agit-prop
By Randall Barnhart on April 6, 2001
Format: Paperback

Yup, this is the greatest piece of anarchist agit-prop since…well, since forever. There is nothing better.

Having said that, let’s look at the book from the science fiction angle. Matiasz knows and effectively uses every tropism of modern SF to very good effect. The use of “other sources” to push the exposition, the plot devices (missing atomic weapons, a Hidden Hero, the idealistic young protagonist who, by learning, reveals all). Wonderful.

And even if Matiasz uses trops, he never, ever sinks to stereotypes. There are cops that, while trapped in the System, are also caring and real. And a lot of the comrades are also idiots and buttheads. Every character is real.

This book is nothing like the stuff so-called Libertarian SF. It is profoundly and wonderfully great.

Q zine & Iven Lourie

“The plot is straight forward thriller-cum-cyberpunk … (I)t’s fast-paced and fun in the way only a fervent anarchist rant can be.”

—Q zine

“End Time presents as an apocalyptic future-fiction, but exhibits all the characteristics of a realistic psychological novel… (Matiasz) extends current trends ingeniously to provide a context for characters winning their individual illuminations and liberations. … (H)is novel (as Marge Piercy did for my 60’s…) will bring the reader up to speed (or some approximation thereof) on contemporary anarchist ideas.”

—Iven Lourie, Inner Journeys

TapRoot Reviews and Gene Splice

“Solidly-crafted thriller… Provocative political discussion and ‘what if’s’ raise the book’s intellectual value without spoiling it as a good read.”

—TapRoot Reviews

“End Time: Notes On The Apocalypse is a very good book of future fiction, bordering on science fiction. … (It’s) a fun book to read … Thick, chunky and tasty… Well done, and well worth reading.”

—“Cookie” Mahoney, Gene Splice

Profane Existence & Cyberpsychos AOD

“While dealing with future events that may not be, enough of the action takes place in a believable world to call this a 90’s version of M. Gilliland’s classic The Free . Over-all, well-written, near future science fiction novel brimming with believable characters in an all-too-familiar setting. Pick this one up and you probably won’t be able to put it down “til it’s over!”

—Dan, Profane Existence

“Do ya like subversion? How about nuclear terrorism? Good good, glad to see your priorities are set straight. £od Time Is packed full of goodies like this & much more. … A highly entertaining & interesting read, with chapters that may soon be headlines.”

—Bruce Young, Cyber-Psycho’s AOD

End Time: Notes on the Apocalypse can be purchased for download from Smashwords.

Small Press Review & Left Bank Distro

“Ackerman showed up, and Bennett – and some guy named G.A. Matiasz whose SF/Oakland-based early 21st-century thriller called End Time I’m currently in the middle of and finding not only highly professional but intelligent, a rare combination in fiction. It’s fun reading, too!”

Bob Grumman, Small Press Review

“Although supposedly set in 2007, this intense new novel from a Maximum Rock’n’Roll columnist reads frighteningly real today.”

Left Bank Distribution

End Time: Notes on the Apocalypse can be purchased for download from Smashwords.

Popular Reality & Pirate Writings

“This is, at the very least, the novel of the year. The characters really take you along with them. So realistic, it ought to give all sorts of saboteurs inspiration on possibilities for what can be done.”

Irreverend David Crowbar, Editor, Popular Reality

“End Time is an engaging, thoroughly realistic novel that might very well frighten you into studying the political agenda of our leaders a bit more closely come November.”

Pirate Writings

End Time: Notes on the Apocalypse can be purchased for download from Smashwords.

JG Eccarius and Lumpen Times

“End Time … is scarily realistic, fast paced, and detailed in vision. … I don’t know of any future fiction this chillingly real published since the debut of Gibson’s Neuromancer …. If Gibson preceded Matiasz, it must be admitted that Matiasz has topped him.”

J.G. Eccarius, The Stake

“Matiasz constructs a fascinating and believable technoBaroque California in End Time …. (He) has woven a zeitgeistish thread into the web of futurology…. It’s a compelling read once you get started. AK Press couldn’t have sent a better book at the right time.”

EdMar, the Lumpen Times

End Time: Notes on the Apocalypse can be purchased for download from Smashwords.

Factsheet Five and Maximum Rocknroll

“G.A. Matiasz has created a charged, political, and very readable novel in End Time, jump-cutting P.O.V. from character to character, pulling the reader into the plot as each character, quick as a Polaroid, develops into a fascinating persona.”

Factsheet Five

“This is not a happy vision of ourselves and the world we maintain. But it is an honest and compelling one. End Time. Notes On The Apocalypse is excellent speculative fiction. Full of heart and horror. Get it. Read it.”

Pickles McGurck, Maximum Rock’n’Roll

End Time: Notes on the Apocalypse can be purchased for download from Smashwords.

Eluki bes Shahar and Hakim Bey

“End Time is a kick-ass thriller of the near-future political edge; fast-paced and always surprising. This hardball trip to Looking Glass Land is reminiscent of the books of Neil Shulman and Shea/Wilson, and should find an enthusiastic audience.”

—eluki bes shahar, author of the Hellflower trilogy

“A compulsively readable thriller combined with a very smart meditation on the near-future of anarchism. End Time proves once again that Sci-Fi is our only literature of ideas.”

—Hakim Bey, author of T.A.Z.

End Time: Notes on the Apocalypse can be purchased for download from Smashwords.