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Though this thought-provoking novel follows several points of view, Quinn Kellerman is the protagonist. As a reporter who, before nearly losing his life, was indifferent to the rising power of eState, Quinn begins to live a double life in the aftermath. By day he works for the biggest news network under eState’s thumb, and by night he writes for a black market newspaper with the intent to share real stories.
In addition to portraying a futuristic America where journalism is smothered by propaganda, Koenig takes the idea of managing a state like a business and goes running with it. Ironically, his hyperbolic portrayal of a futuristic America mirrors the criticism that the nation sometimes receives: that it is run on money rather than people’s voices. eState, the governing company in this dystopia, wants to strip away citizens and replace them with shareholders. It propagates this concept by saying shareholders can have more influence than citizen taxpayers, which is the exact opposite of what being a shareholder does. Just like a company, the more money someone invests, the more say they have in how the company is run, but what happens to those who don’t have the income for such a luxury? Their voices are silenced.
In this dystopia, where the truth is told underground, and the news is auctioned off, it is up to Quinn and his friends to expose the corruption and manipulative rhetoric behind eState and its CEO, Bruce Haskell, to give the silenced a voice. Reminiscent of the classic dystopian novel, 1984, by George Orwell, Koenig has created a futuristic America that comes across as hauntingly relevant. Being a reporter, Koenig uses his experience to explore what would happen to journalism in an authoritarian state, which gives it a unique insight that isn’t often explored in dystopian fiction.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review