A disturbing vision of a future America, with an impact boosted by the startling authenticity of individual perspectives.
Stephenson’s debut dystopian thriller trails the lives of people in 2027 America, crippled by war, natural disasters, a crumbling economy and the threat of nuclear destruction.
Times are bleak for America in the near future. It’s suffering through the Second Great Depression; Florida has been devastated by Hurricane Luther; and having toppled countries, Iran has become a superpower. In fact, the U.S. joined the European Army to form the Allied Forces in a war against the Great Empire of Iran. Meanwhile, Iranian terrorists carry out attacks on American soil, riots are becoming more common and another hurricane is making its way to Texas. In light of all this, President Malcolm Powers must decide whether to protect his nation or save the world. Despite its global setting, Stephenson’s novel stays sharp by honing in on specific characters: billionaire genius Howard Beck, a recluse tucked away in his “fortress” with his artificial intelligence, Hal; California inmate Richard Dupree; Santa Fe, Texas, Police Chief Maxwell Harris; and President Powers. Each third-person narrative offers an account of the action, as Richard looks for escape from the lethal clouds of smoke from raging wildfires, Max and other cops encounter gunmen as the storm nears, and the president seeks counsel on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He learns that even the White House may not be safe from rioters. Beck’s involvement in the plot is drolly ironic: He has completely isolated himself from the outside world—Hal feeds him news stories to keep him up-to-date—but his heavily fortified estate makes it an ideal spot for powerful people. Stephenson’s novel, the first of a series, feels like a buildup to a confrontation that doesn’t happen here. In the same vein, supporting characters—including an unemployed investment banker who joins the military when his family becomes homeless and a Jiffy Lube manager–turned–survivalist leader—provide riveting subplots that, at least in this book, remain unresolved. But Stephenson knows how to sear images into the brain, such as the destitute living in Central Park in “Obama-Camp” (“a throwback to the ‘Hoovervilles’ built during the First Great Depression”) and frightened citizens wearing bulletproof vests in church.
A disturbing vision of a future America, with an impact boosted by the startling authenticity of individual perspectives.Pub Date: July 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477654637
Page Count: 456
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.
Set in the future and reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power.
In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an “inferior” class, though he’s happily married to Eo, an incipient rebel who wants to overthrow the existing social order, especially the Golds, who treat the lower-ranking orders cruelly. When Eo leads him to a mildly rebellious act, she’s caught and executed, and Darrow decides to exact vengeance on the perpetrators of this outrage. He’s recruited by a rebel cell and “becomes” a Gold by having painful surgery—he has golden wings grafted on his back—and taking an exam to launch himself into the academy that educates the ruling elite. Although he successfully infiltrates the Golds, he finds the social order is a cruel and confusing mash-up of deception and intrigue. Eventually, he leads one of the “houses” in war games that are all too real and becomes a guerrilla warrior leading a ragtag band of rebelliously minded men and women. Although it takes a while, the reader eventually gets used to the specialized vocabulary of this world, where warriors shoot “pulseFists” and are protected by “recoilArmor.” As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury.
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-53978-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
Captivating, frightening, and a singular achievement.
As Ireland devolves into a brutal police state, one woman tries to preserve her family in this stark fable.
For Eilish Stack, a molecular biologist living with her husband and four children in Dublin, life changes all at once and then slowly worsens beyond imagining. Two men appear at her door one night, agents of the new secret police, seeking her husband, Larry, a union official. Soon he is detained under the Emergency Powers Act recently pushed through by the new ruling party, and she cannot contact him. Eilish sees things shifting at work to those backing the ruling party. The state takes control of the press, the judiciary. Her oldest son receives a summons to military duty for the regime, and she tries to send him to Northern Ireland. He elects to join the rebel forces and soon she cannot contact him, either. His name and address appear in a newspaper ad listing people dodging military service. Eilish is coping with her father’s growing dementia, her teenage daughter’s depression, the vandalizing of her car and house. Then war comes to Dublin as the rebel forces close in on the city. Offered a chance to flee the country by her sister in Canada, Eilish can’t abandon hope for her husband’s and son’s returns. Lynch makes every step of this near-future nightmare as plausible as it is horrific by tightly focusing on Eilish, a smart, concerned woman facing terrible choices and losses. An exceptionally gifted writer, Lynch brings a compelling lyricism to her fears and despair while he marshals the details marking the collapse of democracy and the norms of daily life. His tonal control, psychological acuity, empathy, and bleakness recall Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006). And Eilish, his strong, resourceful, complete heroine, recalls the title character of Lynch’s excellent Irish-famine novel, Grace (2017).
Captivating, frightening, and a singular achievement.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780802163011
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
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