The Odds

"The Odds hearkens me back to childhood: under the covers with a flashlight, following characters I loved through worlds I desperately wanted to explore."

-Dalan Musson, screenwriter, Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The apocalypse happened, but no one knows how. What's left is a barren world ruled by a high-powered caste of bookies, The Odds.

Scurrying around underneath is our hero, Eldridge-a big-hearted, bumbling drifter with an estranged family he loves dearly. He's deep in debt and deathly sick, so he places a bet predicting the day he'll die. If he wins, he can go to his grave knowing that his family will be safe, but when he returns to his hometown to collect, he gets some bad news: He's going to live.

So it's on to plan B-a high-stakes battle-tournament that pits real-life chess avatars against each other in random-chance brawls-to-the-death. But Eldridge doesn't know that someone's gamed the tournament to pit him against an old friend who's now a bitter enemy. Now he's got to make all the right moves to save his family-and beat the Odds.

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"The Odds hearkens me back to childhood: under the covers with a flashlight, following characters I loved through worlds I desperately wanted to explore. From the opening pages to the 'chess' thing (a brilliant sequence, worth the price of admission alone), The Odds is engaging, inventive, and fun. Peterson has a clear voice, and layers humor into his prose effortlessly."

-Dalan Musson, screenwriter, Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

"It's full-bore sci-fi/postapocaylptic writing where the writing is actually good, not just functional. The dialogue sizzles. The sentences are packed with radioactive imagery and double-barreled zingers. The paragraphs grab you by your eye sockets and scream in your ears 'til they bleed while repeatedly punching you in the face-and you love every second of it."

-Karl Mueller, writer/director of Rebirth (Netflix Studios) and Mister Jones (Anchor Bay Films)

"I'd describe The Odds as one part western, one part Hunger Games, and one part chess. The hero is incredibly engaging."

-Kristine Chester, Fanbase Press

"The Odds is a deliciously odd book. It's a post-apocalyptic novel that really defies pigeon-holing. It is sort of sci-fi, sort of fantasy, sort of a farcical comedy, sort of ... I really don't know what. (...) Peterson makes it work."

-Jonathan K, Science-Fiction-Review.com

"Readers with a taste for grotesque zaniness may enjoy this venture."

-Publishers Weekly