Synopsis
‘After the pandemic, people hugged, friends and families reconnected, but a few short years later we were back to shooting each other.’
David Miller is an amnesiac war veteran struggling to put the pieces of his life back together and adjust to civilian life in 2049’s PortCity.
His life is turned upside down when an old friend from the conflict shows up, warning him that the war isn’t over — and that there’s something buried deep inside his mind that the enemy are after.
What follows is a journey of self-discovery that explores subjects involving dissociative identity disorder, grief, transhumanism, artificial intelligence, simulations, and the singularity event.
Review
The author very graciously sent me a copy for my reading enjoyment. The paperback is a nice quality with some thicc pages. He then doubled down and asked me if I wanted to check out the audiobook (he’s that awesome), so I’ve read this one twice.
In this scifi debut, I was pleased to feel refreshed with a new take on some very science fiction threads. It is both well written, and simply written, which to me is one of my favorite types of reading.
To me, this definitely felt like it was pulling from elsewhere out in the world, but not at all in the negative way. It is like a futuristic-Slaughterhouse-Five, with elements of Fight Club, Otherworld, Ready Player One, 1984, I, Robot. It touches upon all of these different elements whilst not being like any of them. For spoilers sake, that’s about as far as I will go!
One thing that was a little shell-shocking—as an American—was to read a futuristic story where from multiple perspectives, America, now called the Anarcho-Capitalists (or Ancaps), are the bad guys. No redemption story or redeeming qualities, just outright bad and in the wrong. I of course know my country’s history, so it’s not like I don’t understand it, or that it’s any kind of stretch, but just to read a perspective like that was very different for me. However, with the story being multilayered, the enemies are everywhere, so look out!
There was a change added in part three, as the author released a second edition in between my paperback read and my audiobook listen, that made the ending more concise. Therefore, there is less room for confusion overall and it helps it all come together.
The narration by Dan Matha was fantastic. Damn that man has a deep voice.
Absolutely worth your time, effort, and money to acquire and read this one.
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