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Ben Rivera is a state archivist, tasked with analyzing and preserving official historical records for the State of Nevada when a mysterious case involving a famous poem and its authentic author comes across his desk. Determined to accurately report past events, he doggedly researches the legend that has long surrounded a popularized love story and the words of a western poet. Deciphering this romantic tale proves arduous, and those profiting from the myth become infuriated by Rivera’s search to separate fact from fiction. As his career and personal life unravel, Ben refuses to discontinue his quest for the truth even as it may lead to his demise, but he soon discovers that a second chance at happiness may lie in his own past.
Set in the year 2098, war and technological advances have changed the landscape of the country and daily living. While this futuristic story of rekindled relationships presents itself as a love story, the plot focuses more on the process of revealing the writer of an amorous poem than on the development of a romantic storyline. Interweaving history with an imagined future, the structure requires flexibility from the reader in order to merge the ultramodern environment with the provincial characters. The author creates an innovative world in which distant travel is nearly instantaneous and where many diseases have been cured. Yet with all of this progress, the value of life has diminished with one’s fate in the hands of a lottery system that determines who may receive treatment for survival. These references create a nostalgia for the more simplistic existence experienced in the past. Despite all of the scientific advancements outlined in this creatively conceived future, the pursuit of happiness remains mankind’s greatest endeavor.