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AWAKENING
173 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 24, 2026
About the author
Tony Sunderland
11 books61 followersTony Sunderland is an award winning Author and educational researcher who is acknowledged as an innovator in the writing and presentation of nationally accredited courses ranging from social science to the history of learning . He is particularly interested in the practice and history of what has become known as the ‘Western way of life’.
He believes that there are many alternative explanations of how ‘things came to be’ in the Western world and that these have either been ignored or suppressed by dominant and overpowering narratives of what can be termed as consensus history. His latest book ,'The Obelisk and the Cross' attempts to blend the orthodox view of Western history with alternative interpretations and propositions of historical events.
Tony has visited many of the main archaeological sites in Egypt, Israel, Jordon, Italy, Turkey and Greece. His current research interests centre on the investigation and understanding of ancient cultures that existed in the vicinity of the greater Mediterranean region. Tony has been married for 26 years and has two children.
He believes that there are many alternative explanations of how ‘things came to be’ in the Western world and that these have either been ignored or suppressed by dominant and overpowering narratives of what can be termed as consensus history. His latest book ,'The Obelisk and the Cross' attempts to blend the orthodox view of Western history with alternative interpretations and propositions of historical events.
Tony has visited many of the main archaeological sites in Egypt, Israel, Jordon, Italy, Turkey and Greece. His current research interests centre on the investigation and understanding of ancient cultures that existed in the vicinity of the greater Mediterranean region. Tony has been married for 26 years and has two children.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 2, 2026
Tony Sunderland’s Awakening is a dystopian science fiction thriller set in 2121, where society has split into two very different realities. The privileged New City offers clean living, advanced medicine, and the promise of technological immortality, while the decaying Old City survives on rationed food, failing infrastructure, addictive virtual worlds, and a chemically enhanced version of faith. Sunderland establishes that divide early and makes it central to everything that follows. Senior Guardian Paul Valentine is introduced as a man still going through the motions of duty in a culture that has largely stopped expecting a future. When former New World director William Lennon is murdered inside the supposedly secure Permanent Virtual Facility, Paul finally gets a case that feels meaningful, and the novel shifts naturally into a murder investigation with much larger consequences.
What gives this dystopian science fiction novel its personality is the way the mystery keeps opening doors into bigger questions about consciousness, faith, technology, class, and personal choice. The Permanent Virtual promises an endless simulated existence, while the Faithful offer religious transcendence through drug-assisted communion. Both appeal to people who are exhausted by ordinary life, and Sunderland keeps returning to the idea that control becomes especially powerful when people willingly participate in it. The investigation eventually uncovers something far darker inside the Facility, where desperate Old City citizens have become raw material for the elite’s version of immortality. The revelation of Neural Substrate Farming is especially effective because it turns the novel’s philosophical concerns into something physical and disturbing: human minds are literally stripped of identity and used to make artificial paradise feel emotionally real.
Paul’s personal story keeps the speculative ideas from floating away into abstraction. His father Jason chooses the Permanent Virtual as his body fails, his sister Maggie becomes involved with people trying to expose New World, and Paul slowly discovers that his partner Tom, his old friend Simon, and even people he suspects of extremism know pieces of the truth he’s been unable or unwilling to see. His relationship with Sophia, who left the Old City years earlier to build a life in the Outlands, gives the book another version of resistance, one based on work, community, relationships, and accepting the uncertainty of real life. Maggie is particularly memorable because her anger has genuine consequences. She isn't simply there to tell Paul he's wrong. Her grief pushes her toward dangerous alliances, then forces her to decide what kind of rebellion she actually believes in. That makes the novel’s conflicts feel personal even as the plot grows from a murder mystery into a full-scale speculative thriller about institutional power.
As Awakening moves into its final stretch, the investigative structure gives way to open rebellion, public exposure, and a battle over who gets to define reality for the Old City. The later chapters are faster and more action-driven, but the strongest thread remains Paul’s gradual change from a man who confuses obedience with purpose into someone willing to make choices without institutional permission. Sunderland’s dystopian thriller ultimately centers on ownership: ownership of the body, of consciousness, of belief, of grief, and of the future. The title earns its meaning because awakening here is both literal and psychological. People are pulled out of virtual dreams, religious sedation, political passivity, and private denial, then left with the much harder business of deciding what comes next. That gives Awakening a satisfying identity as dystopian science fiction, speculative fiction, and a technology-driven thriller with a strong philosophical streak.
What gives this dystopian science fiction novel its personality is the way the mystery keeps opening doors into bigger questions about consciousness, faith, technology, class, and personal choice. The Permanent Virtual promises an endless simulated existence, while the Faithful offer religious transcendence through drug-assisted communion. Both appeal to people who are exhausted by ordinary life, and Sunderland keeps returning to the idea that control becomes especially powerful when people willingly participate in it. The investigation eventually uncovers something far darker inside the Facility, where desperate Old City citizens have become raw material for the elite’s version of immortality. The revelation of Neural Substrate Farming is especially effective because it turns the novel’s philosophical concerns into something physical and disturbing: human minds are literally stripped of identity and used to make artificial paradise feel emotionally real.
Paul’s personal story keeps the speculative ideas from floating away into abstraction. His father Jason chooses the Permanent Virtual as his body fails, his sister Maggie becomes involved with people trying to expose New World, and Paul slowly discovers that his partner Tom, his old friend Simon, and even people he suspects of extremism know pieces of the truth he’s been unable or unwilling to see. His relationship with Sophia, who left the Old City years earlier to build a life in the Outlands, gives the book another version of resistance, one based on work, community, relationships, and accepting the uncertainty of real life. Maggie is particularly memorable because her anger has genuine consequences. She isn't simply there to tell Paul he's wrong. Her grief pushes her toward dangerous alliances, then forces her to decide what kind of rebellion she actually believes in. That makes the novel’s conflicts feel personal even as the plot grows from a murder mystery into a full-scale speculative thriller about institutional power.
As Awakening moves into its final stretch, the investigative structure gives way to open rebellion, public exposure, and a battle over who gets to define reality for the Old City. The later chapters are faster and more action-driven, but the strongest thread remains Paul’s gradual change from a man who confuses obedience with purpose into someone willing to make choices without institutional permission. Sunderland’s dystopian thriller ultimately centers on ownership: ownership of the body, of consciousness, of belief, of grief, and of the future. The title earns its meaning because awakening here is both literal and psychological. People are pulled out of virtual dreams, religious sedation, political passivity, and private denial, then left with the much harder business of deciding what comes next. That gives Awakening a satisfying identity as dystopian science fiction, speculative fiction, and a technology-driven thriller with a strong philosophical streak.
July 27, 2026
Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers’ Favorite
Tony Sunderland’s Awakening is set in 2097, where the Old City survives on rationed life while the New City sells escape through technology, medicated faith, and the Permanent Virtual. Paul Valentine is a Senior Guardian paid to collect bodies after Virtual crashes, but the death of a young man on his patrol route begins to break the routine he has accepted. At home, Paul’s dying father is being courted by a Facility salesman promising a digital afterlife, while his sister Maggie has moved into dangerous company inside the Faithful. When wealthy Permanent Virtuals are murdered inside supposedly secure dormitories, Paul’s investigation leads from Zealot suspects to New World’s hidden systems. As each answer points back to the city’s machinery of surrender, Paul has to decide whether duty still means obedience.
Tony Sunderland’s Awakening is brilliantly written dystopian science fiction, and makes a broken future feel frighteningly plausible through everyday obedience. The world-building is completely fleshed out. The Cathedral of the Faithful is a fantastic example, since its white communion pills turn religious hunger into chemical management. Sophia, the woman who leads Gnosis beyond New World’s reach, is great because Sunderland uses her to show rebellion as daily life before it becomes a battle. Mason, Paul’s Guardian superior, is the best of the best in character arcs when the New World official controlling orders offers him New City comfort, yet all Mason can think about is a boy searching through the rubbish outside Headquarters. Stark and memorable, readers who enjoy dystopian science fiction about engineered submission will adore this book.
Tony Sunderland’s Awakening is set in 2097, where the Old City survives on rationed life while the New City sells escape through technology, medicated faith, and the Permanent Virtual. Paul Valentine is a Senior Guardian paid to collect bodies after Virtual crashes, but the death of a young man on his patrol route begins to break the routine he has accepted. At home, Paul’s dying father is being courted by a Facility salesman promising a digital afterlife, while his sister Maggie has moved into dangerous company inside the Faithful. When wealthy Permanent Virtuals are murdered inside supposedly secure dormitories, Paul’s investigation leads from Zealot suspects to New World’s hidden systems. As each answer points back to the city’s machinery of surrender, Paul has to decide whether duty still means obedience.
Tony Sunderland’s Awakening is brilliantly written dystopian science fiction, and makes a broken future feel frighteningly plausible through everyday obedience. The world-building is completely fleshed out. The Cathedral of the Faithful is a fantastic example, since its white communion pills turn religious hunger into chemical management. Sophia, the woman who leads Gnosis beyond New World’s reach, is great because Sunderland uses her to show rebellion as daily life before it becomes a battle. Mason, Paul’s Guardian superior, is the best of the best in character arcs when the New World official controlling orders offers him New City comfort, yet all Mason can think about is a boy searching through the rubbish outside Headquarters. Stark and memorable, readers who enjoy dystopian science fiction about engineered submission will adore this book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews