America 2014: An Orwellian Tale

by Dawn Blair

In this starkly terrifying political thriller, Winston Smith is a young, successful producer of patriotic commercials for the Department of Homeland Security. While working to fulfill his dream of making a contemporary film version of 1984, he runs afoul of government censors, is forced to stand trial in a nightmarish courtroom, and faces brutal execution in a privatized prison. Rescued by a mysterious, powerful young woman and a band of teenaged computer hackers, he joins the Resistance and becomes swept up in a deadly struggle to undermine his government's stranglehold on power and information.

Genres: Dystopia, Fiction

222 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

Reviews

[B Han · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book's haunting vision is real; or maybe it's real and I don't know about it--yes, exactly, that makes it even more real.

America 2014 captures reality more closely than George Orwell's 1984--where the ideas like Newspeak and one global mega-state might have been too much for people living in 1948.

For instance, last week I was waiting for train at Great Neck, a small train station in Long Island. It's a peaceful town in the outskirts of New York City, and in the waiting area only advanced technology is a big electronic screen saying "If you see something, say something" and every minutes or so a monotonous voice echoes throughout the station "If you see something, say something."

Why is that monotonous voice and screen so reminiscent of "we're watching you" propaganda in 2014; the voice I was picturing while reading the book is the exact same-the sense that people around you are suspicious, the sense that we're all under constant danger, the sense that we need an almighty figure--like the government who's feeding these messages--for our protection.

Not to mention thousands of monitoring cameras watching us every step of our life, not to mention mega-billion wire tapped phone records NSA allegedly has--these are happening right now at this moment.

Media conglomeration is another big thing; News Corp (which owns Fox, Myspace, you name it) resembles the pervasive, fear-mongering, totalitarian media outlet we see in 2014; every time I walk in the streets of New York, I see Fox declaring themselves The Most Powerful Name in the News--well, not much different from the Only Truth media we see in 2014, ain't it.

And tortures. We have already seen evidences of our government torturing people not only in the United States but in other parts of the world as well. And common sense tells us that what we see about government is only inkling of what actually happens behind the scenes; think about it, how much we don’t see about what our government is doing; yes, we see the President giving speech and footages of the Congress making decisions and what-nots but that’s just a teeny-tiny bit of what’s being planned in White House and in Congress, right? So we see these pictures of our government torturing people abroad, who are you to say brutal killings and abusive prison environment in 2014 are not happening?

The year 2014 is approaching, and will we see things happening in 2014 actually happening? They might be happening, but we might not know about it—and that’s the most dreadful implication.

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I read this back in 2004, I initially liked the idea for the book. However, the story is so poorly written (I would go so far as to say THE most poorly written book I have read) that I really had to suffer to reach the end.

Somehow we are to believe that the same people that built a huge, self-sufficient resistance movement under the nose of the all-knowing government of "God's United States" are incapable of forseeing and thereby fall for the traps (that you, the reader, can see a mile away) set for them. The characters are completely flat, lifeless and are puppets manipulated by the author. Their motivations are non-existant. Everyone in the book is an addict of some type (which would be ok if you are reading a Hunter S Thompson book, but being high on pot really decreases your chaces of executing a successful revolution.) Which drugs you do seems to depend on which side you are on. Pot for the resistance, Oxy, pharmaceuticals and alcohol for the Establishment types. How deep and insightful.

I'm really disapointed because this story, if written by a different author, could truly have been developed in so many interesting ways but instead just lands flat. I would venture that all of 3 days of research on Google went into this book. I can't help but think this was written in 2 weeks so it would print just around the 2004 election (published in July '04). Don't waste your money or your time on this book.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free years ago when I was an undergrad. They were handing them out as part of the book tour. I started reading it when I was really busy and had to put it down. I immediately was annoyed with the lack of subtlety, ie George Blush, John Bashcroft. For this reason I never picked the book back up, even though I was enjoying the story. Years later, my dad told me he read it and thought it was a really good book, so I decided to start over and give it another try. I was still annoyed with the lack of subtlety, but the story was really good. Yes, it is a rip-off of 1984, which it is purposely trying to do, but who cares, everyone always says, steal from the best. And Blair does and does a good job with it. Good characters, good story, good subject matter makes a good novel.

[Hank · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good lord, that was terrible. Bar far the most heavy handed, least well written dystopian fiction I've waded through. President George "Blush"? VP Dick "Croney"? John "Flashcroft"? Save me. Every character is as flat as the page they appear on. This book actually had the effect of making me LESS worried about the US sliding that far into fascism, because it was so poorly written that it made reality seem unbelievable.

Especially bad when compared to Sinclair Lewis's classic about American dictatorship, It Can't Happen Here.

Don't bother. Write me, I'll suggest better dystopian stories to enjoy.

(http://epicdystopia.blogspot.com)

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept was interesting, so for that this books gets its two stars. It's basically 1984 set in a current day America where the Patriot Act is on steroids. The execution is definitely lacking though. Apparently the author has never heard of this thing called subtlety. I see several other reviewers seem to be just as annoyed at the names like "George Blush" and "Dick Croney". This pretty much exemplifies how much this book tried to hide it's jabs at the Bush administration. It's because of this that the book went from something potentially interesting to a pile of over the top propaganda that was hard to read.

[Mark Cheathem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read a lot of fundamentalist Christian conspiracy fiction, it was interesting to see the flip side in a book that imagines a U.S. under the control of purported fundamentalist Christians. While the plot held some promise, overall, it's one of the worst books I've ever read. The ridiculous attempts at names (President George O. Blush being just one example), the lack of depth for every character, the predictable ending--all work against what could have been an interesting take on early 21st-century U.S. politics and society.

[Chad Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simultaneously funny and terrifying. This book is a response to the Orwellian laws put in place by the Bush administration to "protect" us from terrorism at the expense of personal privacy and freedoms. Not a bad read, but not terribly creative.

[Marcus K · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little heavy handed, but a little orwellian heavy handed-ness never hurt anyone. A quick, easy read if nothing else.

[Joey Pontone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way to much anti bush propaganda, albeit deserved at the time of publishing. I haven't read 1984, but I understand the plot is true to the original.

[Cherie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is awful. I read it as part of research for a paper I was doing on dystopian fiction in the 21st century.