Overview

Çoki is missing! Who murdered the mascot and spokes-bear of the world's most successful foreign language app? Was it an executive, employee, investor, lover, or one of the company's animated instructors - endearing cartoon personalities invested with the power of Artificial Intelligence? What began as a chain novel prompt along the lines of ""It was a dark and stormy night"" on a language app fan site morphed into a full-fledged novel and parody by the prize-winning author of Cooperative Lives. The story originally appeared online in thirteen riveting installments but is now expanded and available in book format as the definitive parody, page turner, and murder mystery for anyone who has ever studied language with a cast of digital cartoon characters and an anthropomorphic mascot.

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9781733902564

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Reviews

"""Anyone who's ever studied a language online will recognize the conversation between the baker and the shopper; between the bus driver and the passenger. In Finegan's book, these characters have broken free of the script and taken on lives of their own. This clever concept is most emphatically not a book you've read a million times before... Finegan is a really smart writer... [He] doesn't burn a lot of time explaining how 'real' and 'virtual' characters are able to interact on the same playing field - just accept the premise and let his wit roll over you... You'll have fun puzzling out the various threads, languages, and references found within Patrick Finegan's ""Toys in Babylon,"" and in the end, you'll probably learn something as well."" - Justin Gaynor, Reader Views - 31 May 2024 ""Toys in Babylon: A Language App Parody and Whodunit gives readers the perfect demonstration of a parody written with lively intention... The plot revolves around a cast of satirical, fictional characters and situations that embrace animated teaching characters, AI influences, jokes, and mystery alike... Romance, poetic interludes, and more emerge from unexpected encounters. Readers are kept on their toes by a progression of shifting events and realities that keep the characters engaging and memorable... It's the literary-minded reader interested in the changing devices of satire and parody who will find the progression thoroughly absorbing, albeit steeped in language not ordinarily seen in standard writing approaches... These strengths are why Toys in Babylon: A Language App Parody and Whodunit is especially recommended for advanced students of language and parody, who will find the story's contemporary twists and usage to be both thoroughly engrossing and ultimately educational."" - Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review - 10 July 2024"

""Anyone who's ever studied a language online will recognize the conversation between the baker and the shopper; between the bus driver and the passenger. In Finegan's book, these characters have broken free of the script and taken on lives of their own. This clever concept is most emphatically not a book you've read a million times before... Finegan is a really smart writer... [He] doesn't burn a lot of time explaining how 'real' and 'virtual' characters are able to interact on the same playing field - just accept the premise and let his wit roll over you... You'll have fun puzzling out the various threads, languages, and references found within Patrick Finegan's ""Toys in Babylon,"" and in the end, you'll probably learn something as well."" - Justin Gaynor, Reader Views - 31 May 2024 ""Toys in Babylon: A Language App Parody and Whodunit gives readers the perfect demonstration of a parody written with lively intention... The plot revolves around a cast of satirical, fictional characters and situations that embrace animated teaching characters, AI influences, jokes, and mystery alike... Romance, poetic interludes, and more emerge from unexpected encounters. Readers are kept on their toes by a progression of shifting events and realities that keep the characters engaging and memorable... It's the literary-minded reader interested in the changing devices of satire and parody who will find the progression thoroughly absorbing, albeit steeped in language not ordinarily seen in standard writing approaches... These strengths are why Toys in Babylon: A Language App Parody and Whodunit is especially recommended for advanced students of language and parody, who will find the story's contemporary twists and usage to be both thoroughly engrossing and ultimately educational."" - Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review - 10 July 2024

Author Information

Patrick Finegan is the prize-winning author of Co-operative Lives and Toys in Babylon. He was born during the second half of the Eisenhower administration and graduated during the Carter and Reagan Administrations from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago Law School and Graduate School of Business. Before turning to fiction, Mr. Finegan worked more than thirty years in law, corporate finance, and man-agement consulting. He has a wife and grown daughter and lives in the New York metropolitan area. He is a devoted student of foreign lan-guages and is an avid fan of online language apps.

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