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Summary
Summary
"Timely, dark, and ultimately hopeful: it might not 'make America great again,' but then again, it just might."--Cory Doctorow, New York Times bestselling and award winning author of Homeland
Acclaimed short story writer and editor of the World Fantasy Award-nominee Three Messages and a Warning eerily envisions an American society unraveling and our borders closed off--from the other side--in this haunting and provocative novel that combines Max Barry's Jennifer Government, Philip K. Dick's classic Man in the High Castle, and China Mieville's The City & the City
The United States of America is no more. Broken into warring territories, its center has become a wasteland DMZ known as "the Tropic of Kansas." Though this gaping geographic hole has no clear boundaries, everyone knows it's out there--that once-bountiful part of the heartland, broken by greed and exploitation, where neglect now breeds unrest. Two travelers appear in this arid American wilderness: Sig, the fugitive orphan of political dissidents, and his foster sister Tania, a government investigator whose search for Sig leads her into her own past--and towards an unexpected future.
Sig promised those he loves that he would make it to the revolutionary redoubt of occupied New Orleans. But first he must survive the wild edgelands of a barren mid-America policed by citizen militias and autonomous drones, where one wrong move can mean capture . . . or death. One step behind, undercover in the underground, is Tania. Her infiltration of clandestine networks made of old technology and new politics soon transforms her into the hunted one, and gives her a shot at being the agent of real change--if she is willing to give up the explosive government secrets she has sworn to protect.
As brother and sister traverse these vast and dangerous badlands, their paths will eventually intersect on the front lines of a revolution whose fuse they are about to light.
"Futurist as provocateur! The world is sheer batshit genius . . . a truly hallucinatorily envisioned environment."--William Gibson, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In an alternate America in which Reagan did not survive the 1981 assassination attempt, the revolution will indeed be televised, in analog. This militarized America (called "robotland" by Canadians), with walls on both borders, has its heartland rebelling against the corporate government. Sig, a runaway adolescent recently returned to the American "Motherland," escapes detainment and heads for the sanctuary city of New Orleans. His adoptive sister, Tania, who incautiously insulted the president, is forced by the government to infiltrate the underground that is helping Sig. Dodging drones, deputized citizen militias, and suspicious dissidents, they come together with an outlaw Texan billionaire who operates pirate broadcasts, hoping to find a deposed former vice president and a National Guard colonel who together temporarily liberated Louisiana. Debut novelist Brown (editor of Three Messages and a Warning) brings a mordant sensibility to his depiction of a "flyover country" that is no longer willing to have its patriotism exploited and its land degraded for other people's profits. His characters do not easily triumph, because he respects them too much to cheapen the costs that they must bear to succeed. Agent: Mark Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
In the near future, the U.S. is broken apart into warring territories, the president is a tyrant, and rebellion rends the land. Immigration across all borders is restricted. Sig, a feral and fugitive young man, and Tania, a lawyer working for the government and daughter of a revolutionary, are connected by their past, and both get caught up in the burgeoning rebellion. They journey into the Tropic of Kansas, through the broken heartland of America to a flooded New Orleans, a world populated by smugglers, militia bands, monolithic corporations, and revolutionaries. Confronted by unreliable alliances and uncertain trust, they both must decide where their loyalties lie. This vision of the future is violent, unforgiving, and bleak: Cormac McCarthy meets Philip K. Dick. It's disturbing because of how believable it is. The novel's structure is fractured: chapters are short, with frequent jumps between characters. This gives the work an uncertain and unsettled feel and captures the fractured nature of the world these people inhabit. It's remarkably effective. Recommended for fans of Paolo Bacigalupi and China Miéville.--Keogh, John Copyright 2017 Booklist
