Splinterlands

Splinterlands #1

by John Feffer

Part Field Notes from a Catastrophe , part 1984 , part World War Z , John Feffer's striking new dystopian novel, takes us deep into the battered, shattered world of 2050. The European Union has broken apart. Multiethnic great powers like Russia and China have shriveled. America's global military footprint has virtually disappeared and the United States remains united in name only. Nationalism has proven the century's most enduring force as ever-rising global temperatures have supercharged each-against-all competition and conflict among the now 300-plus members of an increasingly feeble United Nations. As he navigates the world of 2050, Julian West offers a roadmap for the path we're already on, a chronicle of impending disaster, and a faint light of hope. He may be humanity's last best chance to explain how the world unraveled—if he can survive the savage beauty of the Splinterlands. John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. In 2012–2013, he was also an Open Society Fellow looking at the transformations that have taken place in Eastern Europe since 1989. He is the author of several books and numerous articles. He has also produced six plays, including three one-man shows, and published a novel.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Politics, Climate Change Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Novels

130 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 2016

About the author

John Feffer is director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including The Pandemic Pivot and the Splinterlands trilogy. His essays have been published in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He had been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now! and other international news media.

Reviews

[Jill Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a feel good book. This is a "take a hard look at what is happening now, as it effects the future", book.
While not post apocolyptic in a zombie kind of way, it certainly is a bit scary.
I enjoyed this quick read despite the dark nature of the story.
It was well written with enough reference to real events (2008-current) that make it hard to believe that Splinterlands is fiction. Or is it? And just the right amount of futuristic advancements to make it believeable.
I would recommend this book for anyone that looks critically at world events, culture or politics as a way to see where we are headed.
And kudos to Feffer for naming the hurricane that physically destroyed much of the United States "Hurrican Donald."
Just brilliant!

[Lori Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splinterlands by John Feffer is a dystopian novel set in 2050. Julian West is writing a report updating events of the world since his book Splinterlands was published in 2020 before the Great Undoing, the global collapse of economies around the world. Julian, sick and old, visits his children Aurora, Gordon and Benjamin via virtual reality. He witnesses the damage to the world he had predicted in his book, the careless lack of empathy from those who'd profited off of the world's demise, and his younger son's battle for what he believes in. Finally, he visits his ex-wife who lives in a commune and attempts to draw her into a rejuvenation project until he realizes it has all been a ruse - the report and the reason for the treatment.

What I love about this novel is that not only do you get to see this dystopian world through West's eyes, but there is also an unnamed editor who leaves footnotes in West's report that clues you in on different aspects of West's life and those around him. It is a clever writing technique.

Feffer's book is a reminder of what can and is happening in the world today. Globally, we are on a precipice of decline. The upper 1% keeps getting wealthier and the lower 99% has little hope. His novel is an all too real, bleak glimpse into our own future.

[Bettie]

Huffpost: A Long List Of Enemies Inside Trump’s White House

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dystopian fiction that comes from an academic whose career is think tanking for the future repercussions is where I was intrigued to start this book. Unlike many of this genre there is no glimmer of hope, more of a matter of fact documentary along the route in the handbasket. You feel the authors strengths in reporting and making global connections yet I would have liked him to have a harder science background as well when approaching this future. The shared protagonist role of the story and the editor somewhere in the future in all the footnotes I finally appreciated in the later third of the book. You aren't supposed to like the academic Julian West and encounter few reasons to engage with him along his selfish journey. That is why I kept putting the book down. The story of what the earth is going through made me pick it up again and forgiving the brevity necessary to tell a story helped. There are some priceless jokes that I won't spoil that I hope are appreciated.

[Zaki · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a kind of novel which you could finish in one sitting, although I did in two. The theme of it is interesting but it couldn't hold me much. It is a dystopian novel, just like 1984, which warns us of gloomy future if we don't act now. One of the themes is Climate Change. He is right in saying that climate change is easy to tackle if we act now, and difficult to deal with because it is not an issue of an area, it is a global issue, so all of us have to act now.
You can go for it if you're into dystopian fiction. Otherwise it is not like a must-read.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short dystopian novel about the near future, written by a foreign policy professional. It focuses on the potential breakup of current large states and coalitions (China, EU, etc) and overall fragmentation. It's worth reading, though it carries less heft for folks who have read science fiction around those themes -- even just concentrating on Western Europe, I can thank William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Ken MacLeod, Gwyneth Jones, Dave Hutchinson, Kim Stanley Robinson for equally vivid scenarios ...

[Patrisia Sheremeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a this-could-happen tale that isn't terribly concerned about being an actual novel.

[Salt344 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel is a very thin wrapper over a grim essay on the near future of mankind.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Makes me look at "23andMe", and all those other DNA data hoarders with even more suspicion than before

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating structure: The main character, Julian West, is writing a memoir-revisitation of his earlier scientific work, Splinterlands, written about 50 years previous. The time of revisiting is approximately 2050; the novel itself, is dated 2016. At first it was confusing to be reading about a fictive work with the same title as the actual work I was reading, but I got used to it. It is one of the first pieces where I have enjoyed footnotes as well as text, footnotes by a mostly unknown commentator. He does identify himself by p. 113 by name and a scholarly work of his own that he cites. I'm not sure I got his full function, but he did keep my interest by hinting at events that would be revealed later, by questioning West's memory or veracity, by also supporting West's comments with further, mostly fictive, citations.

I didn't like West much,but remained curious enough to keep reading the dystopian piece even though the first couple of encounters with his children were slow and seemed there mostly for the descriptions of the changing geography and population of the places where they lived. There was a bit of family interaction and psychology as they replayed relationships of the past, which made me like West even less. But gradually plot takes over and the ending was fascinating.

[Holli · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise was interesting enough, but I found the layout to be a bit disjointed. It's set up as a futuristic sequel manuscript to an academic book "Splinterlands" about how nations splintered in the future decades, but was also set almost as a memoir of the author's life. The novel also had added footnotes to establish an academic feel analyzing the manuscript. Personally, reading it felt more like reading a sequel before the first book and the added footnotes gave the impression that I was supposed to know more than I did. I think it would have been better formatting to have actually written "Splinterlands" and then made this book an actual sequel.

I did like premise of the novel. Just not so much the formatting.

[Erin Stuhlsatz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was written like a nonfiction account, complete with footnote commentary, of the United States after climate change and political upheaval and disunited it. It was a little dire. I hope.

[Tom Polek · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poignant and looming nature of this book are a bit much at times, but it is a very enjoyable read.

[Staci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I might have given this book a different rating if I had read it a few years ago, but right now it hits a little too close to home. This might not have been the best time to pick this book up because of all the dystopian novels I've read, this is probably the one I can see happening the most.

[Mark Harbinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Song of Real Fire and Real Ice ~ Mark Harbinger's Review of Splinterlands (and the trilogy)

~~~

If You Could Read Your Future—Would You?

Like, perhaps, a small mutant child trapped in a government laboratory, a lot of discussion around Science Fiction revolves around its precognitive abilities.

For example, 1984, Neuromancer and, especially, Brave New World (BNW) are held up as prescient in relation to current events. I’ve mentioned (end of post) another classic in that vein, too. And rightly so, for all of them.

For my part, I think BNW works best as prophecy, not just because it seems to have been the most accurate, but also because of Aldous Huxley’s writing style. Huxley uses elegant, incisive word choices throughout to really emphasize the disconnect between shallow and deeper emotions; plus his deft Omniscient Point of View fleshes out a world (in less than 64,000 words) of truly monstrous porportions.

This is why—long before even these latest iterations of AI chatbots were making all our sphincters tighten—everyone already pretty much agreed on BNW’s literary worth.

But it’s important to remember, as Caitrin Keiper pointed out in the article “Brave New World at 75” for The New Atlantis in 2007: 91 years ago, when it came out, “The critical reception of Brave New World was largely chilly. Most reviewers were disgruntled or disgusted with what they saw as unjustified alarmism.” This would seem to indicate that, either its prescience or its merits as literature have been key to catapulting it higher in our estimation since its release. I would say both.

Dystopian Publishing

Similarly, I would not be surprised if John Feffer’s Splinterlands Series is eventually raised to such heights. Unlike Huxley, Feffer was not already a well-known writer. Instead, like so many modern authors, he has a day job. Feffer is a Director of a (lonely) progressive think tank in Washington DC: the Institute for Policy Studies. I won’t insert his full bio here because I chafe at how modern readers are supposed to analyze all written works through the prism of the writer’s bio. But, it’s worth noting that, as dystopian fiction writers go, he certainly might be in a position to be basing his fictional world on current knowledge of today’s bleeding edge technology, climate realities, and geopolitics. I posit that is why his novels ring so true.

Feffer’s relative anonymity amongst modern sci fi authors also might explain his relatively low ratings on the major book sites. Book one of the series, Splinterlands, clocks in at 4.0/5 on Amazon and 3.5/5 on Goodreads—which is fine, but truly shocked me. At least, by book three, Songlands, those numbers move up to 4.7 and 4.2, respectively. So, those who stuck with it maybe learned better.

I also hasten to mention that neither BNW nor Splinterlands are even listed under the “Science Fiction” genre on Amazon in the first place (!). This, of course, is nonsense. I’m not the first to point this out, but I’ll repeat it: to either parse and micro-categorize these tremendous stories (“political fiction”) or to sweep them up in a catch-all (“literary fiction”) does a disservice to them as important works of genre fiction.

A Trilogy for the Ages

Feffer’s important story is a trilogy that consists of: Splinterlands (2016), Frostlands (2018), and Songlands (2021). They occur around 2050, referring back to as far as 2020 and how society started to disintegrate around that time. These novels hit the same tone and overlap much of the same subject matter as Octavia Butler’s epistolary Parable Series. Like that duology, it describes revolutionary efforts during a civilization that is self-destructing. But, frankly, these novels hang together better as stories.

Butler’s second Parable book, Parable of the Talents, reads more like a second chance at rewriting the first. It’s a masterpiece, yes; but it essentially re-tells and continues the same story as the first one, albeit without any of the dragging narrative and sometimes convenient character motivations of the first. It’s essentially a literary do-over.

The focus of each of these series are a little different. The Parable… series focuses on the local dysfunction, haunting and horrible, of nationalistic fascism in the lived experiences of its victims. And the protag/‘savior’ figure emerges from that, with the technology and key family dynamics (mother/daughter) of that character barely playing a supporting role in the story-telling.

The Splinterlands Trilogy, on the other hand, covers an entire family that manages to be instrumental, in various ways, in ‘doing well’ within this new world, and then redefining what ‘doing well’ means when the world is dying. It shows both a single family and the human family both working to figure out a way to come together and make it work.

Feffer’s series also completely incorporates the technology into the discussion: climate change mitigatiion, AI, virtual reality—all of this is woven into the narrative as subtly as other writers use dialogue tags. As Marshall McLuhan taught us, each new tehnology recreates our environment. These novels actually demonstrate which portions of us might and might not remain human as we move from environment to environment, at increasingly breakneck speeds.

The overarching plot contrasts some of the ultimate choices that need to be made in the face of our impending climate disaster. I’ll say it again: can our human family come together, or is it to be the Billionaires, with their ‘longtermism’, after all?

Another difference between the two series is, of course, the time frame. Butler’s series was a dystopian future (she was writing in the 1990s about 2024 moving forward) and, frankly, most everything she puts forth is a continuation of our nation’s brutal history of racism. So, it is entirely plausible in the said time frame, which is to say: NOW. This is so much so that comedian Marc Maron, in his most recent standup special says (about modern fascists and the politics of today) ‘I guess all we’re waiting for now is to find out which color they choose for their uniforms’.

Meanwhile, Feffer wrote his series in the 2010s and 2021 about the early 2050s. Due to no fault of anyone, this makes Feffer’s crystal ball seem a little more sinister—as though it’s more of a betrayal of ourselves to not get better with all that sweet, sweet tech right here, now, on the horizon.

Splinterlands was, technically, not Feffer’s debut novel—under the pseudonym of Jon Berson, he wrote Foamers: A Novel of Suspense in 1997. I haven’t read that one (yet), but it apparently was about terrorists that use train derailments and then disguise them as fake; so, hell, even that book maybe echoes a chord with current events.

But, Splinterlands was his first ‘sci-fi’ dystopian novel. And, as such, this is a tremendous success. He makes no—and I mean, zero— of the typical ‘first novel’ missteps the genre authors (myself included) make in their freshman effort. Each character has a unique voice. No characters having fewer dimensions than they deserve. No plot holes. None of the resolutions are tidy, nor are they telegraphed. It’s all quite remarkable.

But, beyond just playing error-free ball, there are many ways in which these books really are exemplary:

1- For example, each one is a self-contained story—with internal and external stakes, tragic foreshadowing, and, most importantly, a resolution. This last bit is most unusual, I think. These days it seems that many authors get strong-armed into making each book of a series end on a cliffhanger.

2- His prose is exceedingly efficient. Each book is really a novella. In fact, all three books combined are not even 40% as long as A Dance with Dragons, Book Five of George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy series con-game called “A Song of Ice and Fire”. (PERSONAL NOTE: for me, it was half-way during book three of ASOIAF when I realized I was being had and stopped reading…feel free to leave your “A Song of…” stopping point in the comments below…the biggest Fantasy of that series is that it will be finished, AHEM!). /end rant

3- Like many ‘Milieu novels’, the world is the “main” character in all these books; but, family dynamics, community dynamics and, yes, geo-political dynamics all are simultaneously engaged and resolved in these stories.

Finally, in my cursory skimming of other reviews, I noticed one pattern. Many folks claim that Feffer’s writing is “academic”. You can safely ingnore such reviews. It’s another example of people substituting (perceived) identity for actual critical reasoning using empirical metrics. No doubt those reviewers looked at his bio and, finding it somehow wanting (What? He’s a political wonk and not a scientist-techie? Bah!), and therefore, a priori, dinged his writing with it.

But for actual authors academic writing is really associated with passive voice, and these novels most certainly do not use that. Feffer’s prose is very crisp. It’s both taut and emotive, sometimes bordering on noir (which maybe befits his previous experience with the crime novel, who knows?). But, it suits both the subject-matter and this reader just fine.

I seldom give FIVE STAR reviews, even less so with modern novels. But this definitely deserves it. John Feffer’s Dystopian Splinterlands Trilogy is the Paramount 21st-Century Science Fiction Work.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what to say??

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting novel published in 2016 about what might happen if world events go haywire - a dystopian novel about the effect on the world, told through the lens of the narrator's (Julian West) relationship with his son. The book focuses on alternative history post the breakup of the USSR - in the book, there is a further disintegration of the Russian Federation itself because of various factors leading to independence movements by ethnic groups within Russia. The book imagines the decline of the US because of de-dollarization, political polarization, and the fragmenting of other countries as well (the secession of Okinawa from Japan, Bavaria from Germany and the Eastern part of Saudi Arabia declaring itself independent). As the world goes haywire, the predictable monetary, socio-economic chaos ensues.

I read the book in late 2022 to January 2023 - about a month before Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia, rather than disintegrating, seems instead intent on recreating the Russian Empire/Soviet Union - with the annexation of Ukraine the first step toward this goal. Or, if not direct annexation/rule, then recreating a sphere of influence analogous to NATO and the EU in the former Soviet republics. I'm not sure Russia has the socio-economic and cultural might to pull off such a goal, but the world's center of gravity does seem to be migrating to various up and coming countries such as India and China. It would be (to us, at least) strange to see China one day become what the US is today and has been for at least 100 years, but nothing is impossible in world history: as we know, many empires throughout the world - great states with vast power and influence - have come and gone. I do not see how Russia could "replace" the US as the world's biggest economy and most influential power - but China might soon surpass the US in terms of the size of its economy, and it is building up alliances, trade deals, building rail links, and building up its military.

Unfortunately, the above rather sketchy review was written almost a year after I read the book; so I will probably have to re-read the book to write a halfway decent review while the book is still fresh in my mind. I have for some reason developed a sort of inertia about putting books into GR lately - even though I know that for me, these reviews are critical in remembering what a book was about, what I thought about it and so forth. I'm not sure why this happened - I keep putting it off even though I definitely enjoy writing reviews of books I've read. I think I fell into an "escapist" outlook the past few years as global warming coverage/incidents increased and rather than read, I often opt for direct escape into the world of movies, usually movies from an earlier (?carefree) era when climate change wasn't an issue. A lot of my time is therefore taken up with viewing classic movies, reading about them, borrowing more of them from the library, and so forth - to the detriment of devoting time to reading/writing, which was previously my primary means of self-education and/or distraction/amusement. I'm not sure when this escapist "phase" will end - if ever - given the never-ending natural catastrophes - floods and so forth - which seemed to be linked/exacerbated by climate change/global warming. I guess I am depressed by the seeming reality of global warming, even though I've read a few books that try to dispute/refute the problem and the only "remedy" I can think of, of how to deal with the bad/distressing news, is to watch shows of a prior (?simpler) era. It's a relatively harmless "addiction" except when it begins to intrude/take time from other areas of life, some which are definitely more worthwhile such as reading. I know I've learned a lot from reading since my layoff over ten years ago, and that is not the case with movies (except for documentaries). Movies are not a waste of time and some are exquisitely well-made, but they are mostly fictional stories whose "satisfying" wrap-ups can usually be anticipated. The only thing I get out of them even if they are silly/predictable, is reassurance/escape into an earlier time. Sure it's false, since we live in the present with all its problems and the looming threat of global warming. I'm not sure there is a more "rational" response to the issue, personally, at this point - other than to momentarily forget about it through the all-enveloping distraction of old movies.

Here are a couple of quotes from the book:

"In the great myths of antiquity--Oedipus, Antigone, Medea--strife only destroys the surrounding society after first tearing apart the family."

"The need to compete on an increasingly interconnected planet pushed countries together to create economies of scale."

[N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: I did not read the Kindle version but there was no paperback edition with the correct cover image. I recently purchased a paperback with the cracked-earth image from Haymarket Books.

In a dystopian future, the narrator of this story tells how climate change and the splintering of nations has led to a violent dystopian world with food shortages and flooded shorelines. A former professor who became famous for his prediction about what would happen -- written in our time, as Brexit was beginning the downfall of the European Union and inactivity on climate change was causing that change to accelerate -- this is his reflection, as he lay dying (complete with footnotes by an unnamed analyst) on what occurred and how his personal mission to visit his family, also splintered and scattered around the world, has gone.

After he visits each of his family members, something sinister happens. They each disappear. Since they all manage to resume the arguments that split the family up in the first place, it's possible they just can't tolerate him and have decided not to contact him. But, one of his children lives a shady lifestyle. Could the disappearances have something to do with him?

I found this book a bit on the dry side -- it is written a bit formally, like an academic paper, after all -- but the ending was worth sticking it out. And, I did think the author did a great job of imagining a future scenario based on current events. He humorously used a hurricane named Donald that destroys Washington, D.C. as one of his defining events.

[Lighthearted · Rating 1 out of 5]

Geo-paleontologist Julian West contemplates the state of the world — and his family — in the year 2050 and tries to piece together where it all went wrong. The climate has changed dramatically, as has the political landscape. Most of the countries we know today (2017) have been torn apart by internal conflict, dwindling resources, and terrorism.

Using virtual reality to visit his children and his ex-wife, West brings readers into this broken new world. War zones and kidnappings are now the norm in Brussels. Xinjiang prospers but is no longer part of China. Vermont is snowless and home to a few farming communes, heavily armed and prepared to defend themselves.

Eh. The premise is certainly timely and Feffer references plenty of recent/current events in the storyline. I never connected with West’s character however. He’s detached and, as the footnotes indicate, somewhat unreliable as a narrator. So, for me this was mostly a gloom and doom read lacking emotional impact. The only feeling I felt was a mild sense of dread as West approached each of his family members, particularly his youngest son. There’s more going on that West reports, or perhaps is aware of himself.

Not recommended by me although other reviewers have loved it.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick read. Not horrible for me, but it felt like it got caught up in somewhat repetitive explanations of worldwide sociopolitical collapse and lost the story up until the ending twenty or so pages.

My favorite bits were the contrasting footnotes, and the moments where West's family saga intersected with his predictions and prescriptions about the crumbling world. Some of the dryness was just West's character -- he was self important and arrogant, which isn't a bad thing except for that in this case, it mostly overpowered the narrative. I would have loved to see this world a bit more vividly (descriptions are pretty dry, flat, sparse) though I'm hesitant to have wanted the book to be longer -- the writing style mimics academic articles and as its finals week right now, I'm very tired of them.

There was an interesting world in there, but we get a disjointed and hollow portrait of it for much of the brief book. It's very much an older, intellectual white voice here (the author is in fact and older, white academic) which I've found tends towards dryness. Not my favorite, but not the worst thing I've read. Makes me want to seek out more dystopia that focuses on politics and climate change though. It makes me want to reread Parable of the Sower, tbqh.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published shortly after the 2016 presidential election and written through the lens of a geo-paleontologist and the story of his broken family, this quick, dystopian novel shows what the world could look like in just a mere 30 years in the future if we continue on the current trajectory -- in economics, politics, the environment, etc. Being so short, it was overwhelming to absorb the plethora of recognizable historical and current references and how they related to the present time disaster in the novel. In the end, it was downright eerie, especially reading sentences like: "I've always focused instead on 2018. As far as I can tell, that was the last moment when we had a definite shot at dodging the bullet."

[Kevin Revolinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A speculative fiction book of the near future that extrapolates out of the near past and current socio-political elements of the world. Written by a slightly unreliable narrator who penned a famous book about the coming fragmentation of the nations of the world, the first-person narrative follows the author as he tries to reconnect with his scattered and estranged family. Footnotes are provided by a third-person to further flesh out both the narrator and the history and state of the world in the book, which is really what the work is primarily about. It's a short read and unnerving if you consider the current events in world politics.

[Lauren M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This may be one of the most unique non-fiction books I have read because it is formatted like it is a scientific study. I liked that structure, how the footnotes told you more of the story and how it shows that people's perceptions of self are never accurate, even if you don't realize you are embellishing or omitting something from a story.

It looses points for me character-wise. I didn't really like any of the characters (which you can still make a good story out of unlikeable/flawed characters, ie: Vicious) but this one didn't work for me. I also find the plot to be kind of boring.

[Vanessa Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this dystopian novel in the wake of the November 2016 election, as a form of resistance reading, if you will.

In many ways, it's difficult to keep in mind that it is fiction. So much of what we are doing now as a species will most likely have long-lasting effects. But, what will the world look like in 10 or 20 or 30 years? What sort of social and political and economic systems will prevail and how will we sustain ourselves in future?

It's a compelling read. Not exactly uplifting and certainly depressing at moments.

[David]

The book presents a vision of a world of climate change, corporate globalization and other factors resulting in nations splitting up into smaller and more dangerous countries. We get this view by means of an older man trying to reconnect with his scattered family. He "travels" via virtual reality to the various places his family members have gone. While we learn about his family members, the conflicts they've had and the points of view they have, we are introduced to different countries, the social decay, and other issues.

[JoAnna · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's 2050. As he nears the end of his life, the author's main character travels to visit his children via virtual reality. In the course of his travelers, we learn how the world has unraveled -- from nationalism, violence, power, greed, religion, and environmental catastrophes. I like a good dystopian novel, but what I don't like about this one is that it's essentially a rehashing of history (a big time "tell") versus "showing" readers how history has played out. Quite frankly, it wasn't creative and made the book a bit of a snooze to read.

[Steven McKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone else stated, this is not a feel good book. It is not either a total gloom and doom novel. It's more of a warning.

This novel is written as a memoire/report, an investigation into "how did we get here," where here is in the near future, the mid-21st century. Modern society has collapsed inward into a large collection of nominal city-states, largely ethnically homogeneous. There are clearly still some functioning industries, but how they function in a global conflict zone is never discussed. Rebellion and violence are everywhere except those places with strong autocratic leaders. Food security is tenuous.

I read this over the weekend of the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the coincidence was unsettling. Is this novel a prediction or a warning? I like to think that the author is warning us to wake up.

[Horst Walther · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend reading dystopias; and this story certainly is one.
Of course, like it is the very nature of a dystopia the author here paints a dark picture of a bleak, yet not completely improbable future.
Rather he picks up the hints and weak signals of todays world and extrapolates them, woven into his somewhat artificially sounding personal story.
So, one more model of a possible future, which to avoid will need some civil involvement.

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of warning of what could come than a full fledged story, Splinterlands believably outlines a world wide dystopia that could actually come to pass. Unfortunately, as far as the actual story telling is concerned, the book leaves a lot to be desired. With key plot elements given out in footnotes, and any type of overarching narrative not being revealed until the last chapter.

Worth a read if you are curious about a way the world could actually go down hill.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was mediocre; usually I’m a sucker for book within a book but this wasn’t quite that, instead ending up not really being a novel at all. And it didn’t actually really tell us anything new! Also annoyed by the fourth wall breaking - Hurricane Donald as the major climate catalyst, I mean, rather on the nose. I was interested in the children and that’s about it; the main character is repellent.