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Prison Planet
A novella of the world in 2042.
20,000 words.
In the near future Jackie and her husband Antone are working hard to move out of the bottom class of society. In an earlier time of history his work as a designer and Jackie's work as a professor of history would have made them middle-class. No longer. Like 99% of the population, they're poor.
Then one day while her husband is at work in another city, men in suits come and take Jackie and her children away to be interred in a prison camp in North Texas. No phone calls allowed, no explanations given.
Jackie keeps hope alive that Antone will rescue them. But if he does manage to get them out, where are they going to run, where are they going to hide, and where are they going to go on the PRISON PLANET?
20,000 words.
In the near future Jackie and her husband Antone are working hard to move out of the bottom class of society. In an earlier time of history his work as a designer and Jackie's work as a professor of history would have made them middle-class. No longer. Like 99% of the population, they're poor.
Then one day while her husband is at work in another city, men in suits come and take Jackie and her children away to be interred in a prison camp in North Texas. No phone calls allowed, no explanations given.
Jackie keeps hope alive that Antone will rescue them. But if he does manage to get them out, where are they going to run, where are they going to hide, and where are they going to go on the PRISON PLANET?
- GenresScience Fiction
80 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 16, 2012
3 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Billie Sue Mosiman
138 books92 followersEdgar Award Nominee for Best Novel
Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Novel
Novelist, short story writer, columnist, writing instructor, editor.
My published novels are now available at Kindle.com, along with new short story anthologies and novellas.
Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Novel
Novelist, short story writer, columnist, writing instructor, editor.
My published novels are now available at Kindle.com, along with new short story anthologies and novellas.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 5, 2012
Billie Sue Mosiman has invented a truly frightening world, a world that started out good, but was insidiously invaded by the power and greed of the rich.
Jackie, her husband Antone, and their children are trying hard to work their way up to middle class. They’re good people, they aren’t out to harm anyone, but the same can’t be said for the Powers-That-Be. With no warning, Jackie and the kids are imprisoned in a concentration camp reminiscent of Auschwitz. Not for being a certain race, not for being criminals, but for being poor. In short order it becomes apparent that there is no way out, no recourse, no answers. Antone locates them, wreaking havoc and facilitating escape. But, now what? Where do they go, how do they hide? Will their world ever be safe again?
I found myself feeling the love in this family for one another, and the fear that comes with the inability to protect each other. I cried for their despair, and after finishing the novella, I had nightmares because this scenario isn’t so far-fetched.
Ask yourself, which category do you fit into - the 1%, or the 99%?
Jackie, her husband Antone, and their children are trying hard to work their way up to middle class. They’re good people, they aren’t out to harm anyone, but the same can’t be said for the Powers-That-Be. With no warning, Jackie and the kids are imprisoned in a concentration camp reminiscent of Auschwitz. Not for being a certain race, not for being criminals, but for being poor. In short order it becomes apparent that there is no way out, no recourse, no answers. Antone locates them, wreaking havoc and facilitating escape. But, now what? Where do they go, how do they hide? Will their world ever be safe again?
I found myself feeling the love in this family for one another, and the fear that comes with the inability to protect each other. I cried for their despair, and after finishing the novella, I had nightmares because this scenario isn’t so far-fetched.
Ask yourself, which category do you fit into - the 1%, or the 99%?
July 18, 2012
In the future, you can be imprisoned for being poor. Meet Jackie and Antone and their two children, living on a ranch in Texas doing what they can to survive. Unfortunately, the powers that be have other plans.
Billie Sue Mosiman has created a bleak society bent on ridding North America of the poor, homeless, petty thieves and the like, a society allowed to decay into a dark void of humanity. Told in such a way, the depth of characters and the feel of love shines through on every page. Reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Brilliant tale. This is a story that will leave you thinking long afterwards........
Billie Sue Mosiman has created a bleak society bent on ridding North America of the poor, homeless, petty thieves and the like, a society allowed to decay into a dark void of humanity. Told in such a way, the depth of characters and the feel of love shines through on every page. Reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Brilliant tale. This is a story that will leave you thinking long afterwards........
August 28, 2012
A frightening book that illustrates what can happen to a society when the citizens become complacent and are more concerned with what the government owes them. This is a classic case of people losing their freedoms and rights slowly at first followed by a rapid stealing of their remaining freedoms. The main characters leave their country thinking that they will find a better life elsewhere. As they escape, they remember what life was like when they were younger and wonder what happened. This is a short book that is well worth the read.
July 12, 2012
Halfway through.
This is terribly creepy. My bf and I were just discussing a few days ago about how the middle class will be eradicated, how everyone [except the rich] in America will become slaves and how our money will have no value, and a whole list of "doomsday" situations thanks to the direction politics and humanity is going. And here I am reading this. Will our future be this depressingly bleak?
This is terribly creepy. My bf and I were just discussing a few days ago about how the middle class will be eradicated, how everyone [except the rich] in America will become slaves and how our money will have no value, and a whole list of "doomsday" situations thanks to the direction politics and humanity is going. And here I am reading this. Will our future be this depressingly bleak?
July 25, 2012
Just when you think Billie Sue Mosiman can't possibly get better, she does. Prison Planet is the first book to move me to tears in a very long time. As a mother I can relate to Jackie, and the hell she is put through. It's not a happy book and if you're looking for a lighthearted read this is not the book you're looking for. However, if you want an amazing and very well written story that will stay with you long after you finish I recommend this book highly.
July 16, 2012
A very short story but kind of scary in the point that you think that it could maybe happen one day. We don't know what the future holds but this story could say volumes about our government and the directions that it has been going in the last decade or so. Overall, a good story, just be prepared for some sadness!
July 8, 2012
A future that could very well come to be in our lifetime. Part fiction, part social commentary, Prison Planet will have you turning the pages as fast as you can read. It may also leave you crying at the end.
September 5, 2012
Ms. Mosiman does it again. Her writing makes the reader think...something I enjoy while reading. This book is too realistic, the reader can relate to it...almost like this is where we (humans) are heading. The world leaders are out of control.
July 31, 2012
A dark, and interesting short story that attempts to show how governments might deal with overpopulation in the future, in a global economy gone sour.
November 17, 2013
I really wanted to like this book better than I did as I'm a fan of Billie Sue Mosiman's work, but I found it disappointing. All of the elements of s truly spectacular novel were in place but, somehow, they never quite jelled into a coherent whole for me. It's almost as if the book was published as a promising first draft.
Without getting into details, the book tells the story of one American family's escape and flight into Central and South America in an effort to escape the horrors of a futuristic totalitarian government which is not above murdering those people it deems to be social undesirables or members of lower economic class. The potential for this book to be biting and intriguing social and political commentary is obvious and the reader would have to be blind not to see it--and that's part of the problem. Mosiman makes no attempt whatsoever to be subtle; there is no subtext to this work at all. As a result, rather than the reader being able to explore the themes as in Orwell's 1984 or even, more recently, in Marcus Griffin's brilliant social satire SLAUGHTER, PRISON PLANET lays everything out on a surface level and, unfortunately, becomes a bit of a tedious read after awhile.
The writing itself is good; this author certainly knows her craft. As the family flees southward, the sense of hopelessness and impending doom builds impressively. But, Mosiman's character work is weak. The reader is given a certain amount of background on each of the protagonists but, other than that, there is very little to make these people interesting or distinguishable from anyone else in particular. As a result, from the start, we never really feel we know these main characters and thus, though we may be mildly intrigued at the world Mosiman has created and shake our heads in sadness at its obvious potential parallels with our own future, we find it hard to care very much about the individual people Mosiman has chosen to write about.
Where Mosiman excels is in the prophetic nature of her novel. This book is definitely an example of an artist/author warning the public about a very real danger. Mosiman has carefully crafted a future that is both bleak and terrifying and she has done so in a manner that is not only believable but, perhaps more frighteningly, it is also recognizable. On that level, even as un-subtle as it is, the book certainly succeeds. It simply doesn't accomplish its task in a very entertaining fashion. One wonders if Mosiman might not have better chosen a non-fictional forum in which to express her views and concerns. She certainly has some fascinating, if terrifying, ideas and views as to what the future may hold for humanity.
Perhaps my biggest gripe with this book is that ultimately Mosiman falls into the trap of novice authors twofold. First, she sometimes switches character point of view (POV)without much warning, a technique which is traditionally verbotten to all but the most skilled of authors. Unfortunately, Mosiman lacks the skill (at least in this book)to pull it off.
SPOILER ALERT: Secondly, by the end of the book she has killed off every one of her main characters, including the purported protagonist. As a result, her final message of hope, "rising from the ashes" as it were, falls flat. Alternatively, if she was striving for a bleakness in her literary climax, her failure to develop fully fleshed characters works against her; the reader isn't emotionally involved enough to be affected by the sense of despair Mosiman was working toward.
In the end, I think that the biggest problem with this novel is that, while all the pieces were in place, the book simply didn't live up to its potential. As I stated above, I've read Mosiman's work before and liked it. But this particular novel could have benefited massively
from the efforts of a really demanding and skilled editor ripping it to shreds and sending it back for the author to rewrite a few times.
Without getting into details, the book tells the story of one American family's escape and flight into Central and South America in an effort to escape the horrors of a futuristic totalitarian government which is not above murdering those people it deems to be social undesirables or members of lower economic class. The potential for this book to be biting and intriguing social and political commentary is obvious and the reader would have to be blind not to see it--and that's part of the problem. Mosiman makes no attempt whatsoever to be subtle; there is no subtext to this work at all. As a result, rather than the reader being able to explore the themes as in Orwell's 1984 or even, more recently, in Marcus Griffin's brilliant social satire SLAUGHTER, PRISON PLANET lays everything out on a surface level and, unfortunately, becomes a bit of a tedious read after awhile.
The writing itself is good; this author certainly knows her craft. As the family flees southward, the sense of hopelessness and impending doom builds impressively. But, Mosiman's character work is weak. The reader is given a certain amount of background on each of the protagonists but, other than that, there is very little to make these people interesting or distinguishable from anyone else in particular. As a result, from the start, we never really feel we know these main characters and thus, though we may be mildly intrigued at the world Mosiman has created and shake our heads in sadness at its obvious potential parallels with our own future, we find it hard to care very much about the individual people Mosiman has chosen to write about.
Where Mosiman excels is in the prophetic nature of her novel. This book is definitely an example of an artist/author warning the public about a very real danger. Mosiman has carefully crafted a future that is both bleak and terrifying and she has done so in a manner that is not only believable but, perhaps more frighteningly, it is also recognizable. On that level, even as un-subtle as it is, the book certainly succeeds. It simply doesn't accomplish its task in a very entertaining fashion. One wonders if Mosiman might not have better chosen a non-fictional forum in which to express her views and concerns. She certainly has some fascinating, if terrifying, ideas and views as to what the future may hold for humanity.
Perhaps my biggest gripe with this book is that ultimately Mosiman falls into the trap of novice authors twofold. First, she sometimes switches character point of view (POV)without much warning, a technique which is traditionally verbotten to all but the most skilled of authors. Unfortunately, Mosiman lacks the skill (at least in this book)to pull it off.
SPOILER ALERT: Secondly, by the end of the book she has killed off every one of her main characters, including the purported protagonist. As a result, her final message of hope, "rising from the ashes" as it were, falls flat. Alternatively, if she was striving for a bleakness in her literary climax, her failure to develop fully fleshed characters works against her; the reader isn't emotionally involved enough to be affected by the sense of despair Mosiman was working toward.
In the end, I think that the biggest problem with this novel is that, while all the pieces were in place, the book simply didn't live up to its potential. As I stated above, I've read Mosiman's work before and liked it. But this particular novel could have benefited massively
from the efforts of a really demanding and skilled editor ripping it to shreds and sending it back for the author to rewrite a few times.
September 5, 2013
This was a pretty crummy book all around. Honestly, I don't even know where I got it, but it was on my Kindle and I was looking for a shorter sci-fi story to read in-between longer stories, so I gave it a shot. The writing was pretty bad over all, full of butchered cliches. One of the worst I've ever read and that I still remember now weeks later was this one: "you don't bring pipes to a gun war." Not only did it not seem to fit at all with the character who was supposed to say that, but doesn't the author realize that sort of phrase is supposed to be a *fight*, not *war*? I think it just showed the author's major disconnect with reality, although with her topic and in this genre, she's obviously trying to give commentary on current social trends. It's not like I disagree with her that our economy is lopsided and getting worse, but the author doesn't even realize that there's no way our lopsided economy could survive without the survival of the poor people doing most of the work. There's no chance that rich people could ever just kill them all off - they wouldn't have anybody to actually do production! That basic concept seems to have totally eluded the author, and it's just a great example of dozens more fallacies in what was overall a very short book. I can't recommend this to anyone. Oh, and without giving a spoiler, I'll just say that she wrapped up the ending in a totally heartless way that left you caring nothing for the main characters. Basically a book devoid of thought or feeling (or at least the way those things would usually be presented and understood).
January 17, 2013
Story is ok enough but the characters and their level of importance seems pretty much an after thought, terrible ending which isn't really an ending it more peters off into "I have no idea what to do now" or that's what it seemed like the writer thought.
The prison stuff was good, the sickness was ok, the initially escaping was alright but it got kind of old real fast.
I didn't feel like I cared about any of the characters at all and it looks like the author felt the same way.
The prison stuff was good, the sickness was ok, the initially escaping was alright but it got kind of old real fast.
I didn't feel like I cared about any of the characters at all and it looks like the author felt the same way.
July 13, 2012
Although I enjoyed the characters somewhat, the writing seems a bit disjointed and rushed. The story itself was pretty unbelievable and the random elements tossed in weren't anchored by anything to give them value. There's a part about butterflies that seems to be important, but went nowhere and thus lost it's value.
August 28, 2012
Good premise for a story, but it went too fast between scenes. It seemed as if every time the characters arrived somewhere they were always leaving for no other reason than a perceived fear of the boogyman.
October 9, 2012
This was a very quick read, but not one to really read before bed. It had an intriguing premise, but the characters and the struggle could been expanded by a great deal. I felt like this was a teaser.
February 5, 2013
As is all her work, Prison Planet is pure art. Loved reading it, love her style....will forever be a fan of her work.
October 2, 2014
Well written. A futurist story that is truly depressing.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews