The Shapiro Matrix

by Michael Lechtman

What would you get if you combined 1984, Blade Runner, and Brazil, and added a sprinkling of wry humor to lighten the darkness a bit? It would be my latest book, The Shapiro Matrix. It stands on its own as a look at a dystopian near future in an America where all freedoms have been taken away by the government in the name of progress, replaced by computer algorithms that control everyone’s life.
The Constitution has been sequestered, and the legal system has been relegated to filing a 3 x 5 card and waiting for the algorithm to generate a person’s fate. All cars have been confiscated by the government, replaced by a system of independent, self-driven vehicles, known as the “mainline.” People are charged a tax for breathing, because they emit CO2, contrary to the government’s phony Big Change. The tax, and the money realized by the forced sale of all personal vehicles pays for the mainline operation and other government self-indulgences, enjoyed by the ruling elite. There is very little work available, and people are forced to live on a small universal basic income. Poverty is rampant, and people will do anything to earn extra money, just to live. Lawless gangs of immigrants, intentionally brought in by the government, are roaming everywhere, homeless. There is one government TV station that constantly broadcasts its strange propaganda, to people who are forced to listen to it while they ride the mainline. All communications between people are highly monitored and sanctioned severely if they fail to say the correct thing. The President of the United States may, or may not, even exist as a real person.
Enter Nick Shapiro, a once successful lawyer, who is now struggling to survive under the new repressive government regulations. Quite by accident, through the self-dealing lawyer, Pete Jacobs, he discovers a flaw in the algorithms that allows him to fight back against the matrix of totalitarianism. With the assistance of his girlfriend, Gloria, and his long-time secretary, Carol Emry, they recruit Diane, a mysterious older woman who looks twenty-nine years old, to slowly make inroads against the repression. Just when they think they are in position to restore democracy, by manipulating the algorithm and having Martin T. Van Coghlan elected president, things only become worse. The absolute power and wealth Van Coghlan obtains, at the direction of Pete Jacobs, pushes him to the far right, with even more oppression, and the planned elimination of twenty-million immigrants living in America, through a suicidal war with a Mideastern country.
The surprising conclusion unfolds slowly, as the lives of Shapiro, Gloria, Diane, and Carol are explored in depth, and how each fits into the cogs of the machine to engage in a difficult fight that might restore the liberties and affluence America once knew. Will they be successful in their fight against the mysterious dictatorship America has become? Find out when you read The Shapiro Matrix.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

197 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 17, 2019

About the author

Born in St. Paul , Minnesota, in 1947, Michael Lechtman has been writing novels, short story collections, poetry, and screenplays for more than 30 years. Recently, he has published "The Shapiro Matrix," a near-future dystopian novel of political correctness run amok; the short story collection, "Things That Form Life;" and the nonfiction work, "The Jewish Defense Manual: For Safety And Survival of Jews In The Coming Holocaust."

Reviews

[April eclecticbookworm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Still boring and offensive but a note to other reviewers. The author contacted me on Instagram and asked me to change or remove my Goodreads review. His logic was that since someone else had enjoyed it that my review was not valid. I blocked him on both platforms which is something I did not consider I would need to do with an author. Would I recommend this book to others? No. Would I ask it to disappear because in my opinion, it was hateful? No. I do not agree with censorship. I was going to ignore it but I couldn't stop thinking about how many times this might have happened already or who might be the next to get a DM. The only thing contacting me did was ensure that a book I didn't care for stayed with me longer than it should have. This may not have been the change he wanted to happen in my review but it was the only one I was comfortable making.
What follows is my original review.
I won this in a Goodreads giveaway. I don't always have to like the main character but it helps and in this case the main character was designed to not be liked (I hope that was the intention anyway). This one wasn’t for me and became a struggle early on. It’s the near future that the extreme far right fears the extreme far left wants to secretly do if they were in charge. The target reader is someone “sick of the liberal socialist media agenda”. I just found it gross and tiresome.

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

Dystopic fiction about an America run by computers, with an absence of rule of law. Some guy joins the underground, and overthrows the system, only to find a right wing government even worse takes over.

I found it a touch bizarre.

[Luigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, sometimes saucy with an edgy sense of humour that you will like or not, easy read. A mix of fantasy and science fiction that I think Philip K Dick would have enjoyed reading.

The premise that people who are against a system that supports the corrupt, until they find themselves in a privileged situation themselves is of course not uncommon. It brings to mind the old quote from John Dalberg-Acton of "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

A good read in my book, if you will pardon a pun.

[Denise Eggleston · Rating 4 out of 5]

First things first. I received a Kindle copy of The Shapiro Matrix as a GoodReads First Reads.

The book is entertaining. Overall, it is well-written and engaging. It is set in a near future America. An unabashedly socialist government is voted in place, but not all is honey and roses. In fact, it is a chilling society.

Nick Shapiro, a once prosperous lawyer, is hired by Pete Jacobs another lawyer, to handle a case. Legal cases are decided by a computer algorithm leaving lawyers to fill out and scan a card. Jacobs, who is planning a coup, tells Shapiro about a way to trick the algorithm.

Through a frankly rather unbelievable coincidence, Shapiro's girlfriend unknowingly tells Shapiro about another, more powerful algorithm trick. Evidently, Jacobs uses it too.

Jacobs' coup is successful and his puppet president makes a right-wing government that is worse than the first.

Shapiro just wants to live in a sane world again and takes action. Is he successful? Just read the book.

The book takes current events and extrapolates them to a believable future. It discusses large themes of how political power is exercised for the few no matter what side exercises it.

There are scenes of gratuitous sex particularly with a sixty-nine year old surgically augmented stripper. In fact, all the major characters have seen the other side of sixty.

While there are some real leaps of faith the reader must take, it is a fun read.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It had an over-the-top flavor that didn't smack of being over-the-top. It was a ridiculous story of one man fighting the powers that be through loopholes. It was odd. It was surprisingly engaging. The superfluous and gratuitous sexuality of the characters somehow made sense in the grand scheme of the story. Imaginative and flavorful. By the end, I don't know if the book said anything poignant, but it told a story that was, at the very least, entertaining.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shapiro Matrix

During this covid19 pandemic when everybody is stuck at home I was able to relate to the characters of this book very well.

[Michael Lechtman]

Of the 14 novels I have written, this is one of the best because it describes the direction of our possible political future under a totalitarian regime, whether extreme right or extreme right. The book describes both. Life has become even more bizarre and oppressive than it already is. Today, most people can't see what is happening to them politically because of the overwhelming media propaganda masking it. But the book exposes the raw nerve and harsh truth of our lives as they might be in the near future, similar to that put forth in Orwell's 1984. It makes the reader think for themselves about the world, and not what they are currently indoctrinated with by political powers and the media. Some may not agree with the book's premise, and that is fine, but it certainly doesn't make it a 1-star book because of a fundamental political disagreement. The book is an entertaining work of fiction, and it must be read for what it is: an expose' of a possible unpleasant future of oppression and survival against political power that wishes to enslave us. If your particular personal political views don't let you listen to different opinions, or if you wish to silence them, or, if you are simply so politically correct that you seethe if you read a word that doesn't fit into your approved lexicon, then simply don't review the book.