This ended up being a pretty fun book. The history lesson via Professor Carson Pace (lead protagonist) may be a tad off-putting. It reads like a large conspiracy-theory past proved true and lead to this dystopian future for humanity. If you take some Running Man, with Hunger Games, clump of Orwellian, dash of pragmatic Utopian philosophy – boom you’ve got you a story to read. As stated, I enjoyed it. The Global Union – a worldwide government treats everyone as equals…but of course, there are deviations from this model. Those with wealth and power are still above all others. What you have is arcology – miniature cities on top of cities in self-contained tracks of land to shield citizens from the rural elements in which Earth has become. You still have outsiders (those not living in these engineered cities), corruption, and fights to the death (so much for Utopian leftism). And of course, you have those in the system trying to tear it down. Crime is low – because the judicial system has negated a jury of peers. Lawyers and three magistrates is the court. Those guilty of crime are sentences to a number of bouts. Those that live through their sentence are free to return to society, their jobs, etc. Repeat crime is pretty darn non-existent. But, as the book blurb suggests – an innocent man is framed. Carson Pace (the professor) now must fight for his life. He somehow gets some help (source unknown) to at least give him a chance – but boy does he have his work cut out for him. The book ends before things get real dicey. Character wise, you’ll come to like Carson and his co-patriots in prison. You will, I hope, be utterly put off by Charlotte. I’m not going to go into all that – you’ll enjoy it for yourself. So, we have outsiders, hackers, and many that believe life today is awesome. There will be a clash – just not in this installment.
4 of 5 stars. From the Publisher:
In the near future, many of the problems that plague society today are considered things of the past. Gun violence is almost nonexistent, quality health care is available to everyone, food is abundant and accessible, and crime is all but unheard of. These problems were solved by the creation of the Global Union, a worldwide government that treats everyone as equals. Crime was lessened by one of the GU's most innovative new programs, known as Justice Net. Rather than languishing in prison cells, convicted criminals are sentenced to fight to the death on live TV. The more serious the crime, the more fights they must survive in order to be released. It's an incredibly successful program, since the vast majority of those convicted are unlikely to survive even their very first fight, while the public and the government make fortunes by betting on the outcomes. What happens, though, when an innocent man is framed for crimes he didn't commit? Professor Carson Pace, a gentle soul, finds himself the target of a madman who wants something he has, and before he knows it, he has been arrested as a serial rapist and the evidence against him is overwhelming. Convicted in a mockery of a trial, Carson is sent to Justice Net, where he will have to fight for his life. He has been sentenced to seventy bouts, and the only way he can survive is to kill every opponent he faces, but he's never been in a fight in his life. It all seems hopeless, until another convict, one who has already survived fifty bouts, takes Carson under his wing and begins to train him. Even more astounding, a cyber terrorist group that is bent on exposing corruption in the government learns about Carson''s case, and begins working to free him. In a world with more technology than we can even imagine today, it may take the hardest work they've ever known to bring Justice to Justice Net
