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Zone 23
A darkly comic dystopian satire about being human—all too human.
In a post-catastrophic dystopian future—peaceful, prosperous, and corporate-controlled—non-conformity is a diagnosable disorder, and the human race is being genetically "corrected" to establish peace on Earth.
However, Taylor, a Class 3 Anti-Social Person confined to Quarantine Zone 23, and Valentina, a Variant-Positive Normal from the upscale Residential Communities, have other plans for their future. Their rebellion against the forces of Normality is a hilarious, heartbreaking affirmation of the anarchic human spirit and a defiant departure from the norms of both the genre sci-fi and literary novel.
In a post-catastrophic dystopian future—peaceful, prosperous, and corporate-controlled—non-conformity is a diagnosable disorder, and the human race is being genetically "corrected" to establish peace on Earth.
However, Taylor, a Class 3 Anti-Social Person confined to Quarantine Zone 23, and Valentina, a Variant-Positive Normal from the upscale Residential Communities, have other plans for their future. Their rebellion against the forces of Normality is a hilarious, heartbreaking affirmation of the anarchic human spirit and a defiant departure from the norms of both the genre sci-fi and literary novel.
504 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 15, 2025
About the author
C.J. Hopkins
9 books55 followersC.J. Hopkins is an award-winning American playwright, novelist and political satirist based in Berlin. His plays have been produced internationally and are published by Bloomsbury/Methuen and Broadway Play Publishing. His writing awards include the 2002 First of the Fringe Firsts in Edinburgh, Scotsman Fringe Firsts in 2002 and 2005, and the 2004 Best of the Adelaide Fringe award. His essays are published by Skyhorse Publishing and Consent Factory Publishing. His debut novel, ZONE 23 is published by Arcade Publishing.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
January 15, 2019
“Zone 23” is, quite frankly, unlike any other dystopian novel I have ever read. Written as a satirical version of utopia, this novel follows two, well, mostly two, people who are having their eyes opened, their thoughts expanded, and are seeing the world for what it truly is—maybe—for the first time in their lives, or at least a very long time. We follow Taylor who lives out in the Zone, outcast from society as he is deemed undesirable (more on that in a minute) and Valentina, who just so desperately wants to be Normal and to have a Normal baby and to live her Normal life—there is a reason for the caps. The narrative voice of this novel is just wonderful and, really, that’s what you’d read this book for: Hopkins satirical narration. Because otherwise the plot of this book is pretty simplistic and wouldn’t necessitate the 500 pages it takes to complete this story. However, this is an EXTREMELY good read, albeit a difficult one.
So let’s start with some of the most obvious reasons why it’s a difficult read, which come in the form of my trigger warnings. There is a lot of swearing in this book (which I like but just throwing it out there), violence (some of which is more graphic then others, while other instances are unnervingly clinical), instances of rape or implied rape, and abortion. All of these things are done with care and with the story in mind so they never felt out of place, but be forewarned in case you are sensitive to any of these things while reading.
Now, the other reason why it’s a difficult read is because of how the story meanders. See, while there are character focal points in the book who we get the perspective of as they navigate their world and the challenges they face, they aren’t necessarily the most important part of the story. That lays in how Hopkins world—our world as it is set on futuristic Earth—came to be. You see, the true point of the story is to paint a picture of what happens when we as a species have nothing left to fight, conquer, or destroy and then we turn all that remaining desire for destruction on to ourselves in the form of self-loathing. But we as people, don’t like feeling bad for any reason, which is obviously true today. So once we’ve taken over everything and bombed our natural resources to smithereens, and destroyed the middle class entirely, we are desperate to remove that guilt, or any negative feeling we may have. Everyone just wants to be Normal. But to be Normal, you can’t have any extremes, good or bad. Which would make something as physically pleasurable as sex about as good as shopping and finding a good pair of genes. Everything is equally just fine. In order to do that, our advanced society drills down to genetics—it’s essentially eugenics—and finds a way to remove anything that would make people question whether or not something was ok, if things were fine, if they were happy, or just how messed up the world has become. It’s a fascinating study and something that is oh so terrifying for you can see it happening for real at some point in the future. But Hopkins spends A TON of time on those points, of painting that picture, that for every couple of paragraphs of the “plot” moving forward or action, or even dialogue, you have roughly three pages of world building exposition.
But it’s within those long winded narratives that you really delve deep into Taylor and Valentina’s psyches and discover a pair of tragic anti-heroes and see their violent struggle to remain human, even though those emotions that make us human are now considered a death sentence and cast you out into the Zone (where Taylor has been his whole life) where most people don’t tend to survive past the age of 40. Normally with that much exposition I get frustrated or end up disliking the book, definitely not the case here! I ADORED (which is weird to say because this is not a happy story) how a society that’s painted as a utopian is anything but, how any type of dissent and non-conformity is desperately being genetically modified or drugged out of people as its considered “lass than” human. Hopkins narration is often hilarious and heartbreaking when portraying his characters and the communities they inhabit. So while the “plot” took a while to get where it was going, and I was a bit disappointed with the books ending, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride! This is an easy 5 stars for me and I’ll be keeping my eyes on Hopkins for more novels in the future!
So let’s start with some of the most obvious reasons why it’s a difficult read, which come in the form of my trigger warnings. There is a lot of swearing in this book (which I like but just throwing it out there), violence (some of which is more graphic then others, while other instances are unnervingly clinical), instances of rape or implied rape, and abortion. All of these things are done with care and with the story in mind so they never felt out of place, but be forewarned in case you are sensitive to any of these things while reading.
Now, the other reason why it’s a difficult read is because of how the story meanders. See, while there are character focal points in the book who we get the perspective of as they navigate their world and the challenges they face, they aren’t necessarily the most important part of the story. That lays in how Hopkins world—our world as it is set on futuristic Earth—came to be. You see, the true point of the story is to paint a picture of what happens when we as a species have nothing left to fight, conquer, or destroy and then we turn all that remaining desire for destruction on to ourselves in the form of self-loathing. But we as people, don’t like feeling bad for any reason, which is obviously true today. So once we’ve taken over everything and bombed our natural resources to smithereens, and destroyed the middle class entirely, we are desperate to remove that guilt, or any negative feeling we may have. Everyone just wants to be Normal. But to be Normal, you can’t have any extremes, good or bad. Which would make something as physically pleasurable as sex about as good as shopping and finding a good pair of genes. Everything is equally just fine. In order to do that, our advanced society drills down to genetics—it’s essentially eugenics—and finds a way to remove anything that would make people question whether or not something was ok, if things were fine, if they were happy, or just how messed up the world has become. It’s a fascinating study and something that is oh so terrifying for you can see it happening for real at some point in the future. But Hopkins spends A TON of time on those points, of painting that picture, that for every couple of paragraphs of the “plot” moving forward or action, or even dialogue, you have roughly three pages of world building exposition.
But it’s within those long winded narratives that you really delve deep into Taylor and Valentina’s psyches and discover a pair of tragic anti-heroes and see their violent struggle to remain human, even though those emotions that make us human are now considered a death sentence and cast you out into the Zone (where Taylor has been his whole life) where most people don’t tend to survive past the age of 40. Normally with that much exposition I get frustrated or end up disliking the book, definitely not the case here! I ADORED (which is weird to say because this is not a happy story) how a society that’s painted as a utopian is anything but, how any type of dissent and non-conformity is desperately being genetically modified or drugged out of people as its considered “lass than” human. Hopkins narration is often hilarious and heartbreaking when portraying his characters and the communities they inhabit. So while the “plot” took a while to get where it was going, and I was a bit disappointed with the books ending, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride! This is an easy 5 stars for me and I’ll be keeping my eyes on Hopkins for more novels in the future!
December 20, 2021
More soon.
One word: ridiculous.
Maybe a few more:
Try reading this as 2021 comes to a close and as Germany has just gone full blown batshit by implementing the boldest destruction of the Nuremberg Codes with their mandating of endless vaccines and as the world deals with all the various horrors related to the current global fascistic enterprise - one cannot believe it, and yet . . .
It's one thing to read an older PK Dick book and go "Shit . . . that's eerie . . . " and another story to be reading a book so recent that, essentially, foretells the current horrors with an uncanny precision. It truly does ones head in.
Is there such a thing as too much unhinged, grotesque, totalitarian hell in one year?
The answer appears to be: no!
Hope each of you have - safe - ways of dealing with this collective trauma the majority of us are experiencing.
One word: ridiculous.
Maybe a few more:
Try reading this as 2021 comes to a close and as Germany has just gone full blown batshit by implementing the boldest destruction of the Nuremberg Codes with their mandating of endless vaccines and as the world deals with all the various horrors related to the current global fascistic enterprise - one cannot believe it, and yet . . .
It's one thing to read an older PK Dick book and go "Shit . . . that's eerie . . . " and another story to be reading a book so recent that, essentially, foretells the current horrors with an uncanny precision. It truly does ones head in.
Is there such a thing as too much unhinged, grotesque, totalitarian hell in one year?
The answer appears to be: no!
Hope each of you have - safe - ways of dealing with this collective trauma the majority of us are experiencing.
Want to Read
May 28, 2017ZONE 23 ... a darkly comic dystopian satire about being human, all-too-human, featuring two of the most endearing Anti-Social anti-heroes that ever rebelled against the forces of Normality. Set in the post-catastrophic future, in a peaceful, prosperous, corporate-controlled society where all dissent and non-conformity has been pathologized, and the human race is being genetically corrected in order to establish everlasting peace on Earth, Zone 23 is a hilarious, heartbreaking affirmation of the anarchic human spirit, and a defiant departure from the norms of both the genre sci-fi and literary novel.
https://www.amazon.com/Zone-23-C-J-Ho...
Read
January 29, 2018Great dystopian novel
This novel is a thoroughly enjoyable read. It is a dystopian look at the future, involving vaguely sci-fi themes. Although I'd say our real lives are increasingly entering into sci-fi territory, with genetic engineering, cloning, cyborgs, trans-humanism, and general technology so powerful it almost seems magical. If you like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, or Ray Bradbury you will like this book. I'd also compare some of the dialogue and general witty social insight and criticism to the novels Fight Club and American Psycho, although I preferred this book to those two other very good novels.
This novel is a thoroughly enjoyable read. It is a dystopian look at the future, involving vaguely sci-fi themes. Although I'd say our real lives are increasingly entering into sci-fi territory, with genetic engineering, cloning, cyborgs, trans-humanism, and general technology so powerful it almost seems magical. If you like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, or Ray Bradbury you will like this book. I'd also compare some of the dialogue and general witty social insight and criticism to the novels Fight Club and American Psycho, although I preferred this book to those two other very good novels.
March 6, 2022
I can appreciate the point the author is making regarding a dystopian future that over-medicates to the point where humans no longer have an array of feelings, where genetics and traits are controlled, where violence and disregard is twisted to be a necessary function to put people out of their misery. Where the government controls all, a corrupt and selfish government that brainwashes through everyone’s handheld devices. A world where choice is a mirage created by the government.
Had this theme been written with talent and eloquence, it could have been a highly rated book. The vulgarity of the writing did nothing to enhance the storyline, and extracted most of its worth out of it completely. The writing cheapened what could have been a modern day Orwell type novel. If I could give it a half star I would have.
Had this theme been written with talent and eloquence, it could have been a highly rated book. The vulgarity of the writing did nothing to enhance the storyline, and extracted most of its worth out of it completely. The writing cheapened what could have been a modern day Orwell type novel. If I could give it a half star I would have.
July 3, 2018
Zone 23 by CJ Hopkins
Genre: Dystopian
About the book: Zone 23 is a comedic dystopian satire. The world is being genetically modified to ensure peace on Earth but two anti-social anti-heroes rebel against what is considered normal.
Review: I loved this book. It had a real interesting story to it and I enjoyed the satirical approach to the dystopian genre. I cannot wait to see more works from this author. I feel like the story was just the right length and that the ending wrapped things up.
Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Zone-23-C-J-Ho...
Overall Rating (Out of 5 stars): 5 out of 5 stars
Genre: Dystopian
About the book: Zone 23 is a comedic dystopian satire. The world is being genetically modified to ensure peace on Earth but two anti-social anti-heroes rebel against what is considered normal.
Review: I loved this book. It had a real interesting story to it and I enjoyed the satirical approach to the dystopian genre. I cannot wait to see more works from this author. I feel like the story was just the right length and that the ending wrapped things up.
Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Zone-23-C-J-Ho...
Overall Rating (Out of 5 stars): 5 out of 5 stars
January 22, 2022
I grabbed this book after seeing and hearing some of Mr Hopkins's takes on the pandemic and the authoritarian abuses flowing forth in response, where he is a great voice of sanity.
As for the novel... I like the sensibility... but the style gets abrasive over 500 pages. The endless spewing of details, comma-delimited lists, seemingly to remind us that we are in fact discussing a dystopian future... some styles are suited to shorter novels, and some to longer.
It was nice that a fictional "Pfizer-Lockheed" corporation popped up in a book written in 2015, quite prescient there.
As for the novel... I like the sensibility... but the style gets abrasive over 500 pages. The endless spewing of details, comma-delimited lists, seemingly to remind us that we are in fact discussing a dystopian future... some styles are suited to shorter novels, and some to longer.
It was nice that a fictional "Pfizer-Lockheed" corporation popped up in a book written in 2015, quite prescient there.
September 8, 2018
Quite a decent novel, could be a bit more concise at some points
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Zone 23. Not really dystopian science fiction, more of an alternate satirical look at how we live today. Highly recommended
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Zone 23. Not really dystopian science fiction, more of an alternate satirical look at how we live today. Highly recommended
October 15, 2017
I devoured this book straight through. I would recommend it to fans of Atwood's After the Flood series. Intense, crude, funny and incredibly smart.
March 24, 2026
painfully slow and wandering
June 26, 2018
I thought this was a good read.
It is like looking into a dystopian future. However, it focuses on a serious matter.
This book is classed as a sci-fi as it focuses on the future of the human race.
The book made me think about what everything would be like in the future. Everything was different to the world we live in now. It's something to think about.
I would recommend this book to sci-fi book lovers.
It is like looking into a dystopian future. However, it focuses on a serious matter.
This book is classed as a sci-fi as it focuses on the future of the human race.
The book made me think about what everything would be like in the future. Everything was different to the world we live in now. It's something to think about.
I would recommend this book to sci-fi book lovers.
July 4, 2018
Zone 23 by C. J. Hopkins is like a head-on train crash between comedian/linguist George Carlin and science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.
Sort of a “Twilight Zone, Star Trek and Star Wars” collision into Mel Brooks’ film “Spaceballs.”
Sort of an out-of-control Noam Chomsky Vulcan Mind Meld meets the film “Scary Movie” with a dose of “Fractured Fairy Tales” from “Rocky and Bullwinkle.”
Or a head-on collision between the films “”The Matrix and “Young Frankenstein” -- but in words. NOT streaming on your Viewer. Or other PRIMITIVE device.
The setting is the high-tech dystopian utopia of the Northeast Region 709 of the 27th Century “United Territories” (or is it a utopian dystopia?) on a truly “Climate-Challenged” Planet Earth where sunsets inspire true awe -- and confusion sometimes -- because they can look an awful lot like an Improvised Thermonuclear Device went off – which make the IEDs of the Good Guyz in the very early 21st Century Invasion and Occupation of Iraq look like, well, firecrackers and bottle rockets.
In full disclosure, this review is being written in response to the Will of The One who is Many who is also The Many Who Is One – who/which has threatened to fire a $20 trillion Godsend missile manufactured by Pfizer-Lockheed into my tiny yuppie living quarters built for Normals while I sleep totally maxxed out on ZaxoFlaxiThorinal if I fail to write it, and do so PDQ!
Not only does the 27th Century One Who Is Truly Many know when I am sleeping, it knows when I am awake, it know when I’ve been bad or good, you know the drill. Indeed, it fucking knows everything about me – and in nano-second-by-second faster-than-light-speed real time. The Godsend missile firing thing is just a tiny algorithm away, just a quick point and click away. I tremble with anti-ci-pation or terror, I can’t decide which.
Zone 23 is stupefyingly good. This short novel is the most rollicking, hilarious, demented, deranged, chuckle-inducing, crazed, unhinged, guffaw-provoking, disturbed, unstable, perceptive, lunatic, laugh-out-loud mad and profoundly observant and prophetic novel I have read in a long, long time.
Zone 23 is for the 21st Century what Orwell’s “1984,” Huxley’s “Brave New World” and “Brave New World Revisited” and William Goldings “Lord of the Flies” was to the late 20th Century. But Orwell, Huxley and Golding in a head-on collision with comedian/linguist George Carlin George Carlin and Mel Brooks. In a word: Thermonuclear.
Boring it ain’t because this novel is where shit gets laugh-out-loud real.
Forget all that seductive, manipulative, controlling, domineering, stimulus-response, seductive, saturated-with-advertising 21st Century crapola on every screen in your house – or on at least as many as Disney/Verizon/General Electric/Viacom/Google/Facebook/Twitter whatever will allow without charging another pound of flesh. Per month.
Indeed, just Turn ‘Em All Off and READ THIS BOOK! You especially don’t need to wallow in all that gossip, fake news, propaganda, false news, outright lies, anti-journalism and all the other SAD! stuff on what passes for Breaking News on the mainstream and cable networks. You will learn MORE from this book than you have FORGOTTEN from your fave TV talking heads, from Sean Hannity and Wolf Blitzer to the former Rachel Maddow.
This world is populated by four types of people: Normals, Variant-Positive Normals, Clears and ASPs, or Anti-Social Personalities. The Normals who are Variant Positives have to take boatloads of Zoriflaxinal, Buxafenanadrine or Cylozilatrin (or a cocktail of the three) to live, work, watch Viewers, marry, work, chill, watch Viewers, work, get two cats for the yard, the whole nine yards in order to be allowed to continue breathing oxygen.
AND especially because the VP females are supposed to get pregnant ONLY by artificial insemination. The corporate governance doesn’t call it that exactly – but VPs and APS are not allowed to, well, BREED. You know, Get Pregnant. Except VPs can carry Clears to term to occupy those rarified professional positions in the media, celebrity and professional hierarchy and of whom the entire future Human Race are to be composed.
Oh. There are also the ASPs aka the Anti-Social Personalities. They are quarantined. In a special zones Like Zone 23. BECAUSE THEY ARE ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITIES AND WON’T STAY ON THEIR MEDS AND HALF OF ‘EM ARE USUALLY SPACED OUT ON PLASTO (which is illegal to be sure but readily available)! WHY DO I HAVE TO SHOUT SOMETHING SO OBVIOUS?! Like Taylor, for instance, the hero of the novel is Taylor. My hero. Your hero.
Taylor has to dally with the mysterious elusive underground revolutionaries – actually, TERRORISTS! -- and their secretive and mysterious and downright scary – Operation DADA or Day of Autonomous Decentralized Action. Which is or would be really scary for the Normals, VPs, ASPs and Clears working for the Godzillionaires and their corporate CEO lackeys and about which neither Normals nor Normal VP nor Clears nor the Anti-Social Personalities ASPs know anything because, well, their VIEWERS HAVEN’T TOLD THEM ANYTHING ABOUT IT, WHY DO I HAVE TO SHOUT SOMETHING SO OBVIOUS?!
NO SPOILERS: Taylor’s girlfriend went off her MANDATORY BIRTH CONTROL PILLS and wants to keep the possibly ASP AND ESPECIALLY NON-CLEAR BABY which will grow up AGAINST ALL THE RULES, DAMMIT, AGAINST ALL THE RULES! WHY DO I LWAYS HAVE TO SHOUT … forget it. If they succeed, the baby would perhaps become one of the tiny handful of living human beings left living in the United Territories with any humanity left at all and therefore would Truly Be the Hope and Change that One Could Believe In. Natch.
And why is that you might ask? Because when you remove the aggression, anger, greed, sloth, envy and all the other hundreds of Seven Deadly Sins to create the Clears and breed Clears in the wombs of Variant Positive Normals, you also remove the lusty animal groaning, grunting, screaming, shouting, bedstead-shaking, rip-rolling, mattress flattening animal passion which accompanies sex. Oh and it also removes a lot of other things. Like human compassion, love, empathy and conscience.
Of course, Taylor does everything to help his girlfriend carry the baby to term by desperately consulting with known revolutionaries (TERRORISTS!) to hide the pregnancy, find a way to bring up baby in the revolutionaries’ (TERRORISTS) secret baby hideaways to provide AT LEAST SOME SLIM HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF HUMANKIND -- WHY DO HAFTA TO SHOUT …
Meanwhile, Taylor being a MAN, he meets a revolutionary (TERRORIST) named Sarah, and, despite his eternal devotion to his gf, lemme tell you, the pages-long spine-jarring initial intimate encounter between Taylor and Sarah in an upper room in the BDSM dive bar in Zone 23, well it had me gasping and howling in laughter and in envy and somehow Not Right In The Head Thereafter. I laughed, I cried. Wait for it. It is worth the wait. DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT SCAN FOR IT! LET IT COME WHEN THE UNIVERSE OF ZONE 23 IS DARN GOOD AND READY! Why do I hafta …
So, yes, Zone 23 by C. J. Hopkins is like a head-on train crash between comedian/linguist George Carlin and science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.
Sort of a “Twilight Zone, Star Trek and Star Wars” collision into Mel Brooks’ film “Spaceballs.”
Sort of an out-of-control Noam Chomsky Vulcan Mind Meld meets the film “Scary Movie” with a dose of “Fractured Fairy Tales” and “Boris and Natasha” from “Rocky and Bullwinkle.”
Or sort of a head-on collision between the films “The Matrix” and “Young Frankenstein” -- but in words. NOT streaming on your Viewer. Or other PRIMITIVE device.
Read This Book. The One who is Many who is also The Many Who Is One has so ordered. Remember those Godsend Missiles manufactured by Pfizer/Lockheed/Bayer/Raytheon. Go in peace.
Sort of a “Twilight Zone, Star Trek and Star Wars” collision into Mel Brooks’ film “Spaceballs.”
Sort of an out-of-control Noam Chomsky Vulcan Mind Meld meets the film “Scary Movie” with a dose of “Fractured Fairy Tales” from “Rocky and Bullwinkle.”
Or a head-on collision between the films “”The Matrix and “Young Frankenstein” -- but in words. NOT streaming on your Viewer. Or other PRIMITIVE device.
The setting is the high-tech dystopian utopia of the Northeast Region 709 of the 27th Century “United Territories” (or is it a utopian dystopia?) on a truly “Climate-Challenged” Planet Earth where sunsets inspire true awe -- and confusion sometimes -- because they can look an awful lot like an Improvised Thermonuclear Device went off – which make the IEDs of the Good Guyz in the very early 21st Century Invasion and Occupation of Iraq look like, well, firecrackers and bottle rockets.
In full disclosure, this review is being written in response to the Will of The One who is Many who is also The Many Who Is One – who/which has threatened to fire a $20 trillion Godsend missile manufactured by Pfizer-Lockheed into my tiny yuppie living quarters built for Normals while I sleep totally maxxed out on ZaxoFlaxiThorinal if I fail to write it, and do so PDQ!
Not only does the 27th Century One Who Is Truly Many know when I am sleeping, it knows when I am awake, it know when I’ve been bad or good, you know the drill. Indeed, it fucking knows everything about me – and in nano-second-by-second faster-than-light-speed real time. The Godsend missile firing thing is just a tiny algorithm away, just a quick point and click away. I tremble with anti-ci-pation or terror, I can’t decide which.
Zone 23 is stupefyingly good. This short novel is the most rollicking, hilarious, demented, deranged, chuckle-inducing, crazed, unhinged, guffaw-provoking, disturbed, unstable, perceptive, lunatic, laugh-out-loud mad and profoundly observant and prophetic novel I have read in a long, long time.
Zone 23 is for the 21st Century what Orwell’s “1984,” Huxley’s “Brave New World” and “Brave New World Revisited” and William Goldings “Lord of the Flies” was to the late 20th Century. But Orwell, Huxley and Golding in a head-on collision with comedian/linguist George Carlin George Carlin and Mel Brooks. In a word: Thermonuclear.
Boring it ain’t because this novel is where shit gets laugh-out-loud real.
Forget all that seductive, manipulative, controlling, domineering, stimulus-response, seductive, saturated-with-advertising 21st Century crapola on every screen in your house – or on at least as many as Disney/Verizon/General Electric/Viacom/Google/Facebook/Twitter whatever will allow without charging another pound of flesh. Per month.
Indeed, just Turn ‘Em All Off and READ THIS BOOK! You especially don’t need to wallow in all that gossip, fake news, propaganda, false news, outright lies, anti-journalism and all the other SAD! stuff on what passes for Breaking News on the mainstream and cable networks. You will learn MORE from this book than you have FORGOTTEN from your fave TV talking heads, from Sean Hannity and Wolf Blitzer to the former Rachel Maddow.
This world is populated by four types of people: Normals, Variant-Positive Normals, Clears and ASPs, or Anti-Social Personalities. The Normals who are Variant Positives have to take boatloads of Zoriflaxinal, Buxafenanadrine or Cylozilatrin (or a cocktail of the three) to live, work, watch Viewers, marry, work, chill, watch Viewers, work, get two cats for the yard, the whole nine yards in order to be allowed to continue breathing oxygen.
AND especially because the VP females are supposed to get pregnant ONLY by artificial insemination. The corporate governance doesn’t call it that exactly – but VPs and APS are not allowed to, well, BREED. You know, Get Pregnant. Except VPs can carry Clears to term to occupy those rarified professional positions in the media, celebrity and professional hierarchy and of whom the entire future Human Race are to be composed.
Oh. There are also the ASPs aka the Anti-Social Personalities. They are quarantined. In a special zones Like Zone 23. BECAUSE THEY ARE ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITIES AND WON’T STAY ON THEIR MEDS AND HALF OF ‘EM ARE USUALLY SPACED OUT ON PLASTO (which is illegal to be sure but readily available)! WHY DO I HAVE TO SHOUT SOMETHING SO OBVIOUS?! Like Taylor, for instance, the hero of the novel is Taylor. My hero. Your hero.
Taylor has to dally with the mysterious elusive underground revolutionaries – actually, TERRORISTS! -- and their secretive and mysterious and downright scary – Operation DADA or Day of Autonomous Decentralized Action. Which is or would be really scary for the Normals, VPs, ASPs and Clears working for the Godzillionaires and their corporate CEO lackeys and about which neither Normals nor Normal VP nor Clears nor the Anti-Social Personalities ASPs know anything because, well, their VIEWERS HAVEN’T TOLD THEM ANYTHING ABOUT IT, WHY DO I HAVE TO SHOUT SOMETHING SO OBVIOUS?!
NO SPOILERS: Taylor’s girlfriend went off her MANDATORY BIRTH CONTROL PILLS and wants to keep the possibly ASP AND ESPECIALLY NON-CLEAR BABY which will grow up AGAINST ALL THE RULES, DAMMIT, AGAINST ALL THE RULES! WHY DO I LWAYS HAVE TO SHOUT … forget it. If they succeed, the baby would perhaps become one of the tiny handful of living human beings left living in the United Territories with any humanity left at all and therefore would Truly Be the Hope and Change that One Could Believe In. Natch.
And why is that you might ask? Because when you remove the aggression, anger, greed, sloth, envy and all the other hundreds of Seven Deadly Sins to create the Clears and breed Clears in the wombs of Variant Positive Normals, you also remove the lusty animal groaning, grunting, screaming, shouting, bedstead-shaking, rip-rolling, mattress flattening animal passion which accompanies sex. Oh and it also removes a lot of other things. Like human compassion, love, empathy and conscience.
Of course, Taylor does everything to help his girlfriend carry the baby to term by desperately consulting with known revolutionaries (TERRORISTS!) to hide the pregnancy, find a way to bring up baby in the revolutionaries’ (TERRORISTS) secret baby hideaways to provide AT LEAST SOME SLIM HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF HUMANKIND -- WHY DO HAFTA TO SHOUT …
Meanwhile, Taylor being a MAN, he meets a revolutionary (TERRORIST) named Sarah, and, despite his eternal devotion to his gf, lemme tell you, the pages-long spine-jarring initial intimate encounter between Taylor and Sarah in an upper room in the BDSM dive bar in Zone 23, well it had me gasping and howling in laughter and in envy and somehow Not Right In The Head Thereafter. I laughed, I cried. Wait for it. It is worth the wait. DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT SCAN FOR IT! LET IT COME WHEN THE UNIVERSE OF ZONE 23 IS DARN GOOD AND READY! Why do I hafta …
So, yes, Zone 23 by C. J. Hopkins is like a head-on train crash between comedian/linguist George Carlin and science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.
Sort of a “Twilight Zone, Star Trek and Star Wars” collision into Mel Brooks’ film “Spaceballs.”
Sort of an out-of-control Noam Chomsky Vulcan Mind Meld meets the film “Scary Movie” with a dose of “Fractured Fairy Tales” and “Boris and Natasha” from “Rocky and Bullwinkle.”
Or sort of a head-on collision between the films “The Matrix” and “Young Frankenstein” -- but in words. NOT streaming on your Viewer. Or other PRIMITIVE device.
Read This Book. The One who is Many who is also The Many Who Is One has so ordered. Remember those Godsend Missiles manufactured by Pfizer/Lockheed/Bayer/Raytheon. Go in peace.
December 17, 2018
A wordy but very addictive and immersive read...
Zone 23 is a story told in a uniquely odd and sometimes funny style. C.J Hopkins has created an imaginative and deeply descriptive world of social classes. There were many instances I found myself amused and then there were times I didn't particularly understand whether or not something was supposed to be funny or more serious. Either way its a very immersive read and the author's vocabulary range is like nothing I have seen before which is a big positive and something many aspiring authors should take note and learn from.
I found myself unable to put this book down and I managed to read it over a three day weekend although I didn't get much else done as it is a very long but overall rewarding read. The description is heavy a lot of the time which unfortunately weighs down the flow of what is a really gripping and immersive tale.
Much of the themes echo to the world we live in today although it is set in a 'dystopian' world and makes fun of the genre in a clever and original way. Many of the chapters end on a cliffhanger giving it an effective page turning quality. The characters throughout felt three dimensional and believable in the world they live in.
Above all I would describe Zone 23 as a highly immersive, very interesting story with some attributes many of these 'dystopian' tales could only dream of having.
4 stars.
Zone 23 is a story told in a uniquely odd and sometimes funny style. C.J Hopkins has created an imaginative and deeply descriptive world of social classes. There were many instances I found myself amused and then there were times I didn't particularly understand whether or not something was supposed to be funny or more serious. Either way its a very immersive read and the author's vocabulary range is like nothing I have seen before which is a big positive and something many aspiring authors should take note and learn from.
I found myself unable to put this book down and I managed to read it over a three day weekend although I didn't get much else done as it is a very long but overall rewarding read. The description is heavy a lot of the time which unfortunately weighs down the flow of what is a really gripping and immersive tale.
Much of the themes echo to the world we live in today although it is set in a 'dystopian' world and makes fun of the genre in a clever and original way. Many of the chapters end on a cliffhanger giving it an effective page turning quality. The characters throughout felt three dimensional and believable in the world they live in.
Above all I would describe Zone 23 as a highly immersive, very interesting story with some attributes many of these 'dystopian' tales could only dream of having.
4 stars.
September 18, 2022
It takes real talent to turn the collapse of western civilization into a dark comedy. But the United Territories of this work of Hopkins is hilariously terrifying. Highly recommended.
In Hopkins’ eye western civ didn’t collapse as much as it condensed into its final form as a utterly debased hyper capitalist utopia where everyone has a price, but not everyone has a soul. Sort of a neutron star that was once a giant corporate HQ for Amazon, Carl’s Jr. and CNN
It’s hard to identify a hero in this world, but the villains are clear. They are, as they have always been, the ones that aggressively avoid seeing.
Dystopian to be sure, but science fiction? Maybe when it was published, but now it tells the story of a society that differs from ours only in scale and will. After solving some engineering problems and getting the right people in office, Zone 23’s walls will go up in a Territory near you.
Hopkins’ later work, The Rise of the New Normal Reich, documents our path from the world of 2017 to Zone 23. It was a surprisingly short road.
In Hopkins’ eye western civ didn’t collapse as much as it condensed into its final form as a utterly debased hyper capitalist utopia where everyone has a price, but not everyone has a soul. Sort of a neutron star that was once a giant corporate HQ for Amazon, Carl’s Jr. and CNN
It’s hard to identify a hero in this world, but the villains are clear. They are, as they have always been, the ones that aggressively avoid seeing.
Dystopian to be sure, but science fiction? Maybe when it was published, but now it tells the story of a society that differs from ours only in scale and will. After solving some engineering problems and getting the right people in office, Zone 23’s walls will go up in a Territory near you.
Hopkins’ later work, The Rise of the New Normal Reich, documents our path from the world of 2017 to Zone 23. It was a surprisingly short road.
May 16, 2022
I was going to give it 2 stars, but the ending was worth it.
It has everything you want from a dystopian novel: ideas, world-building, somewhat good characters, but THE WRITING IS SOOOO MESSY! A good editor would never let this novel be published in its current state. It can certainly shed 100 pages or so.
The ending puts everything at odds. Who dominates? The corporations, the human spirit, revolutionaries? Really good for a very flawed narrative.
It has everything you want from a dystopian novel: ideas, world-building, somewhat good characters, but THE WRITING IS SOOOO MESSY! A good editor would never let this novel be published in its current state. It can certainly shed 100 pages or so.
The ending puts everything at odds. Who dominates? The corporations, the human spirit, revolutionaries? Really good for a very flawed narrative.
January 2, 2019
One of the best I've read in years. It takes a little getting used to that your average sentence covers about half a page, but boy is it worth it! A dystopian future where every deviation is either pathologised or criminalised seen through the eyes of two protagonists who are a criminal sociopath and a paranoid psychotic respectively. Great fun.
June 10, 2023
It was a bit of a slog and the constant satirizing of corporate speak was very repetitive and too clever by half but the ending was nice. Too bad you have to go through the rest of the book to get there. 2.5/5
January 23, 2022
Jesus christ that was insanely dark and funny and good and I honestly don't even know how I feel except vaguely terrified
November 28, 2022
A harbinger of our future if we don't wise up. C.J. is the best!
April 19, 2025
“Zone 23,” by C. J. Hopkins (ISBN: 9781648211447, Kindle, Publication Date Jul 15 2025, Skyhorse Publishing | Arcade) earns one star. Having departed life on 14 January 1898, Lewis Carroll never had the opportunity to read this novel, but has he done so, his review might have been his well-known admonition, “If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there." It certainly is mine. Candidly, I came to this book with some trepidation, but I was attracted by words such as darkly comic, critique, and hilarious. Sounds a bit like the ingredients found in a stew, but then I like stew. What I didn’t care for was the flow, its overly (unnecessarily) graphic content, its lengthy, meandering sentences, and frankly the fact that I found no joy in reading it.
July 31, 2023
Excellent book that covered a topic sorely underrepresented in dystopian media- the pathologizing of any behavior potentially threatening to power and the police state's weaponization of healthcare, and also manages to build up a cast of interesting and sympathetic characters, as well as a sort of love story. Written with a humorous style reminiscent of Vonnegut in some places yet still uniquely Hopkins' own.
It makes me laugh seeing the conservatives drawn to the book because they agree with the opinions expressed on the author's blog complaining about "vulgar language." They don't deserve this novel.
It makes me laugh seeing the conservatives drawn to the book because they agree with the opinions expressed on the author's blog complaining about "vulgar language." They don't deserve this novel.
March 24, 2025
The Hadley Corporation of Menominie, Wisconsin has a lot to answer for... which is funny because I was actually in Menominie, Wisconsin for the first time last fall, and this is rather an odd coincidence.
June 8, 2019
A great essayist, whose strong suit is satiric journalism, more than fiction.
July 29, 2025
A brilliant, prescient work of speculative fiction.
Read
October 12, 2025This was weird ...
August 19, 2018
All-covering, powerful, as truth-braving as true art ought to be.
The citation from Hesse encountered at about mid-book is the book's summary and true face.
The more than adequate high point of an essentially 21th-century true writer's course.
The citation from Hesse encountered at about mid-book is the book's summary and true face.
The more than adequate high point of an essentially 21th-century true writer's course.
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