Thinking Outside the Box

The CorpGov Chronicles #2

by Thomas Gondolfi

Almost immediately after their Pyrrhic victory in An Eighty Percent Solution, the remaining members of the Green Action Militia begin mysteriously to disappear. Their leader, Tony Sammis, orders the team further underground than ever before as they try and discover who is exterminating them.

Metro Commissioner Yuri Krylov needs to prove to the fledgling CorpGov that the Metros have value and at the same time protect the perks of the rank and file policeman to continue to dominate and intimidate everyone around them.

As many who have tried to pick up the pieces after a successful coup Nanogate finds that everyone is not pulling in the same direction. As one of the few remaining CEOs of the former Cabal, Nanogate tries to forge a new government out of the shattered remnants left to him.

Within this chaotic soup, a new and influential power block rears its head from the most humble of origins to demand its concerns and rights be addressed.

With Earth itself on the edge of anarchy, drastic measures will be needed to prevent a civil war or to win one once it starts. Tony and the GAM are once again pulled into the center of the maelstrom to place their lives on the line for humanity.

319 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2014

About the author

- Author of the Toy World series, the CorpGov Chronicles, the Monarchy of America series, as well as one off novels such as Wayward School
- Editor of many anthologies
- Renaissance man
- Electrical engineer with BSEE
- Happily married to the love of his life
- As comfortable in a kilt as a suit or polo and slacks
- Father of 3; all grown and leading their own lives
- 30-year board gamer and roleplayer, mostly as GM
- Military brat who’s lived in ten different states
- Competitive table tennis, volleyball, and pickleball player
- Cooked for a living and experimentally at home
- Certified Flirt
- Dreams of an Australian vacation
- Inventive enough to never stop writing; 14 more novels already planned
- Favorite authors: Heinlein, Foster, Turtledove, Chalker, McCaffrey

Reviews

[Aaron Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thinking Outside The Box CorpGov Chronicles: Book Two by Thomas Gondolfi

Tony Sammis is not resting on his laurels in the few weeks following the Pyrrhic victory over the Megacorporations. Four members of the Green Action Militia have gone missing. Two missing members could be coincidence. Four could only mean one thing. The GAM is being hunted! To survive the GAM must disperse. Case Red! Go underground to survive. The members of the CorpGov machine elect Nanogate as their Chairperson. They then set out a course of action to resume what they do best. Business. The first order of business is to assess their status. The disturbing conclusion is that they are at the mercy of any moderately sized organization that is dedicated to their destruction. They must reforge themselves from the shattered remains of the past. Metro Commissioner Yuri Krylov has to find a way to impress the new CorpGov order that the Metros are worth their cost. The future survival of the Metros structure of intimidation and domination over everyone is at stake. Behind the scenes is a new humble group that is beginning to explore it's influence to upset the balance of power. Their purpose is to address longstanding concerns and rights. They demand answers. Civil War looms on the horizon. Only the GAM has the chance to find solutions between these conflicting groups. But at what cost and to whom?

Thinking Outside The Box is a superb follow up to An Eighty Percent Solution. The story smoothly picks up where it left off and continues to grow. The characters and organizations continue to evolve. The tone of guerrilla war is maintained from the previous volume and evolves to a more political one as events unfold. Very fun to see this as per the author's note Book Two is the build up and Book Three will be a book of war. The characters voices continue to be distinctive as they struggle to survive in their ever changing world. The descriptions are very strong and kept me in the world. The action sequences were fewer in this volume but gave much appreciated relief to the building tension of the political struggles. The plot line became a bit confusing for me as the politics between the various characters and organizations wrestled for dominance. To me this was very realistic and not a problem to the work itself. The only real issue I had was that there were quite a few typographical errors, multiple instances of spelling errors and duplicated words throughout the work, which detracted from the flow. In the end this was a fun read and I look forward to the next installment of CorpGov Chronicles. Previous works by this author that I have read is: An Eighty Percent Solution CorpGov Chronicles: Book One; and Drinking the Kool-Aid(A short story appearing in Dragon Roots Missing Pieces Volume 5).

[Thomas Gondolfi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved continuing the CorpGov novels. It's fun to move the bad-guys, the corporate cabal, to being the not-so-bad-guys. None of these people will ever be saints but when they are putting their efforts toward a positive end result rather than just further avarice it shows how even those we consider evil can change.

This book expands our knowledge our favorite characters from "An Eighty Percent Solution" including Tony Sammis, the grandmother net hack Augustine (aka GMa Ice), Jamie Ardwin and even Nanogate.

I'm currently working on the sequel to this book named "The Bleeding Edge", which will be available summer of 2015.

I'd love to hear from any of you with comments, criticisms, or just how much you liked this one.

Thomas Gondolfi
www.tanstaaflpress.com