Historical novels: Someone’s always sending off an important letter. Someone’s always got the sickness. Someone’s always named Mary.

Unless, of course, it’s written by Matthew Sharpe.

Jamestown, the latest (and best so far) offering by the author of critically acclaimed The Sleeping Father, is based on actual accounts of the first American colony, established in the early 1600s. Except this version — told via e-mail, IM, text message, telepathy, and occasional musical interlude — is set in a toxic future in which the corporations of Brooklyn and Manhattan are at war. (Think Blade Runner meets The New World.)

Wacky dystopian antics ensue when a motley crew of plunder-minded settlers, led by Captain John Smith, take the ruined remains of I-95 southward, where Pocahontas and the unsuspecting tribes of Powhatan await — along with a fair amount of sex and violence.

It’s said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce; Jamestown manages to do both at once. Hilarious and horrifying, the novel is sure to place Sharpe foremost among contemporary literature’s vanguard.

Oh, pioneers.

Available online at amazon.com or at your local bookstore.