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Book one in a new series, “The Reluctant DoorKeeper Trilogy”, “28 Days” is a speculative fiction dystopian tale set in Australia in the year 2100, where “saffron dust clouds are blown from the dry interior” of a world forever devastated by altered weather patterns and total climate breakdown.
With outside temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius, a Big-Brother-like “Productive Citizens Bureau” reigns supreme – using surveillance, propaganda, intimidation and mandated employment through citizen-allocated “soul-destroying” jobs, to control an overgrown and aged population.
In a society which forces employment till the age of eighty, Emma Cartwright, our main protagonist, is seventy years old, and after a forty year career, is now hovering on the edge of the dreaded “long-term unemployed” category. With only twenty-eight days to go, her one year unemployment grace period is ending, and the unknown and terrifying prospect of her government-enacted penalty is looming.
The author-crafted future world inhabited by Emma and her friends is rich with detail and utterly terrifying- it doesn’t take too much of a leap to recognize the broad strokes in our current culture that scream foreshadowing.
As Emma faces her bleak and uncertain future, the author takes us down several dark and complex paths with questions such as:
- Will eighty ever really be the new sixty? And if so, what will that mean for the economy, health care, social security (not to mention love and partnership, parenthood, and loneliness?)
- In a world gone bonkers – when, if ever, is civil-disobedience justified?
- Can we ever truly “rule” over our environment, or will Nature’s ultimate power eventually reveal itself?
This chilling cautionary tale is interesting, engrossing and well worth reading. I’m curious to see how this series plays out.
A big thank you to the author and the publisher for an ARC of this novel. All thoughts presented are my own.
My stop today on the @rararesources #blogtour for #28days by @SueParritt
