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Refreshing Jutta
By the year 2030, medical science had become so advanced that death could be postponed indefinitely. A small group of ultra-wealthy people saw in this new technology an opportunity to create a more stable and peaceful world, but only if they had full control over the treatments. Keeping their life-extending procedures to themselves, they took on a near god-like identity under the name the Avogo, thinking that they could rule with consistent peace and wisdom that would come from their great age. In 2045, fire reigned down from heaven. About two-thirds of the world's population perished as the environment became harsh and desolate. Most people who survived took to living in earth-sheltered dwellings, including caves and tunnels. The Avogo — having been worried about climate change — had already prepared their own elaborate doomsday bunkers in mountainsides and stocked them well with the equipment and supplies they would need to continue their immortal lives. They welcomed survivors into their bunkers, offering a life of bliss to anyone who wanted to join their growing cities. But that life of bliss was not free. People who joined the new cities had to agree to have a brain portal implanted into their heads. The portals enabled downloadable education... and reprogramming when their thoughts got out of line. And to monitor those thoughts, citizens had to live with a personal affective simulator bot (PASbot) at all times. Now, in the year 2091, a seventeen-year-old boy named Jutta — born and raised in Volmar, the greatest of the new utopian cities — is plagued by a depression that he can’t shake and that no amount of reprogramming has remedied. Finding little enjoyment in the pleasures that the others in Volmar seem to love so much, he asks for the only solution that can possibly give him a new lease on life… the Refreshing.
253 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 3, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 22, 2021
I'm new to the science fiction genre but the concept of this book was intriguing to me. Basically, in the future people will live in a "perfect" world controlled in most part by AI. After reading the book, I went and looked at the description on Amazon. It would have been really handy to have that as the prologue to the book, things would have been much clearer from the start. The writing was good but I don't care for 2021 slang used in books set in the future (like the word dude). For some reason it pulls me out of the story.
April 9, 2024
‘Refreshing Jutta’ is a Catholic post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure with a clear eye toward modern societal ills and how technology, hedonism, and limitless comfort can be used to capture the soul in a state of arrested spiritual development. It begins in a city ruled by a pseudo-trinity of hyper-humanistic dictators who keep their citizens in order by meeting their every apparent need. Each citizen has a device called a PASbot which acts simultaneously as a source of pleasure, a crutch for interpersonal communication, and a government monitoring device. The parallels to modern cell phones are apparent very quickly.
One of the key features of this city is a process called the refreshing, wherein a person is ostensibly transformed into a baby to restart life free of any ills that living may have produced, be they physical, mental, or other. The concept touches on the realistic fear of absolute consumerism in medical treatment, from its promise of a better life through modern science right up to the part where the promise is a bald-faced lie. Enter Jutta, a citizen of the city and tech genius who has begun to grow disillusioned with the status quo. Rather than being encouraged to investigate his philosophical misgivings, Jutta is encouraged to undergo the refreshing and restart his mind.
Spoiler alert: He doesn’t do that.
Instead, Jutta is rescued by the Dicarers, a group of Catholics living in relative squalor who pride themselves on their study of the absolute Truth provided to Man by God through the guidance of the Church. Their goal is to convince Jutta to use his technological know-how to take down the overlords of his former city and free the minds of those who live within.
Positives:
The story arc is pretty original and I found the setting to be very interesting. Most of the action happens in three places, the city Jutta was raised in (Volmar) and the city of Mainz, where the Dicarers live. The dichotomy of these settings quickly puts one in mind the contrast between the Earthly City and the City of God presented by Augustine. In short, the author had a clear and (I would say) accurate view of the ills facing modern society and did a good job of working them into this sci-fi setting.
The tension builds well throughout the narrative right up through the end and the characters are pretty well fleshed out. Jutta’s development is the main focus but other minor character arcs follow their logical paths without becoming disinteresting. Scripture is employed appropriately and all the teachings presented are done so in an orthodox manner. I don’t see any flaws from a teaching standpoint and, especially in the last third, the action keeps you reading.
Negatives:
It was a bit difficult to tell what the intended point of view is as it seems to employ both third-person omniscient and, at times, third-person limited, which leads to a bit of ‘head jumping’ that can make it difficult to tell what each character is supposed to know. This also resulted in passages that were introducing new information in a manner that made it seem like I was already supposed to know. For instance, names, locations, and groups particular to the narrative were mentioned casually at times as though they would be familiar, while other things (Christian ideas, mainly) that exist in our world were overexplained.
Overall Thoughts:
This book would be good for young readers, I think, especially those who are a few years past the age of Confirmation. It reinforces many of the important teachings of the Catholic Church which may be starting to fade from their minds, especially if not reinforced in other ways. I would recommend it to early high school readers with an interest in the genre.
One of the key features of this city is a process called the refreshing, wherein a person is ostensibly transformed into a baby to restart life free of any ills that living may have produced, be they physical, mental, or other. The concept touches on the realistic fear of absolute consumerism in medical treatment, from its promise of a better life through modern science right up to the part where the promise is a bald-faced lie. Enter Jutta, a citizen of the city and tech genius who has begun to grow disillusioned with the status quo. Rather than being encouraged to investigate his philosophical misgivings, Jutta is encouraged to undergo the refreshing and restart his mind.
Spoiler alert: He doesn’t do that.
Instead, Jutta is rescued by the Dicarers, a group of Catholics living in relative squalor who pride themselves on their study of the absolute Truth provided to Man by God through the guidance of the Church. Their goal is to convince Jutta to use his technological know-how to take down the overlords of his former city and free the minds of those who live within.
Positives:
The story arc is pretty original and I found the setting to be very interesting. Most of the action happens in three places, the city Jutta was raised in (Volmar) and the city of Mainz, where the Dicarers live. The dichotomy of these settings quickly puts one in mind the contrast between the Earthly City and the City of God presented by Augustine. In short, the author had a clear and (I would say) accurate view of the ills facing modern society and did a good job of working them into this sci-fi setting.
The tension builds well throughout the narrative right up through the end and the characters are pretty well fleshed out. Jutta’s development is the main focus but other minor character arcs follow their logical paths without becoming disinteresting. Scripture is employed appropriately and all the teachings presented are done so in an orthodox manner. I don’t see any flaws from a teaching standpoint and, especially in the last third, the action keeps you reading.
Negatives:
It was a bit difficult to tell what the intended point of view is as it seems to employ both third-person omniscient and, at times, third-person limited, which leads to a bit of ‘head jumping’ that can make it difficult to tell what each character is supposed to know. This also resulted in passages that were introducing new information in a manner that made it seem like I was already supposed to know. For instance, names, locations, and groups particular to the narrative were mentioned casually at times as though they would be familiar, while other things (Christian ideas, mainly) that exist in our world were overexplained.
Overall Thoughts:
This book would be good for young readers, I think, especially those who are a few years past the age of Confirmation. It reinforces many of the important teachings of the Catholic Church which may be starting to fade from their minds, especially if not reinforced in other ways. I would recommend it to early high school readers with an interest in the genre.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews