Sunday, April 19, 2015

The Last Book Ever Written by Jonah Kruvant

Victor Vale is a policeman in times of unrest and almost insanity.  The year is 2070 and everyone is connected to the virtual world by a chip.  You can look anything up, watch anything you wish, even become someone else through this computer interface.  You can also lose your free will and no longer have any of your own ideas because they are not only making your life better, they're programming you with propaganda.

Marian Brown PR + Brooklyn Social Media sent me an ARC of this book for review (thank you).  It will be published by PanAm Books on April 28th.  This is an unusual read.  It speaks of dystopian future that sounds altogether too real.

Nowadays everyone wants to be connected all the time.  They wear earplugs for their cell phones.  Have smart phones or tablet so they can instantly answer messages.  Now it's coming out in watch form.  Soon it will just be part of your skin...

Victor has a wife, a son, a nice home, and a good job.  So why isn't he happy?  He finds himself walking through the slums on the way to work.  He doesn't have to.  But he worries about the people who have lost their jobs to automation and are homeless without food or water.  However, he can't help just one; the others will attack him.

When his supervisor shoots a man who has been begging Victor for some water, something inside Victor cracks.  The beggar had a brother.  Victor used to have a brother, too.

It's hard to fight Big Brother.  Victor is supposed to go in undercover and infiltrate the resistance.  To do so, he has to use his creative side.  Being creative is illegal.  Trying to learn how after years of ignoring it is hard to do.  It gets worse when he finds he sides with the resistance.

This is not a real pleasant read, but it sure makes me think of where we might be going in the future.  Look how connected we are now.  I'm not one of those people who lives that way but I see them everyday.  I couldn't live without books or art or other creative talents.  I'd probably be on the side of the resistance, too.

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