THE PRICE OF SAFETY

Set in 2047 in San Francisco, Drey Quintero is a founding member of an energy company on the verge of a major project breakthrough. During the highly anticipated demonstration of the new dark matter power source, he receives a call from his teenage daughter Raven. She’s involved in a crime and needs his help. What he discovers in his attempt to help her changes his whole concept of himself, his family, and the world.

This book does a terrific job of showing many practical applications of advanced technologies. Medical, surveillance, energy, transportation, physical enhancements, communications, nanotechnology, and dark matter are among the concepts explored in this futuristic vision. Cameras are everywhere, trying to disappear in a surveillance state is near impossible. Nothing is as it appears.

I thought the building of this futuristic world was very good. It was realistic and I could feel the tension and fears of the characters. I felt immersed in the action.

Unfortunately it is also a very busy book. The nonstop action seemed to dominate, and some really fascinating concepts tended to get brushed over too quickly. A little more downtime would be helpful to further explore the dangers of technology advancements on society and the individual. Overall very enjoyable and educational.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Michael C. Bland, and World Castle Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Fantastic new dystopian diction. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. Michael C. Bland is an author to look out for. 😀

The Price of Safety by Michael C. Bland
If the current virus crisis hasn’t done enough to freak you out, then read this book. It is a frightening look at a possible future where privacy it truly non-existent. Dray, an engineer, fights to protect his family and discovers secrets about his world that were unexpected.
Bland portrays a reasonably plausible projection of our electronic future. Consider the number of people you see daily (prior to self-quarantining) who are constantly connected to their phone. It isn’t much of a stretch to see implanted phones. Lasik surgery, it isn’t too much of a stretch to see vision improvement with computerized adjustment of biological lenses. There are a substantial number of people who feel that Alexa and Google are always listening and recording.
Consider the last paragraph and Bland’s book isn’t farfetched. That makes it a bit terrifying. Self determination figured prominently in the founding of our nation and yet our personal freedoms are being abridged due to terrorism, crime and now disease.
Bland postulates one future and hopefully the second and third books in his trilogy would provide a positive path out of this dismal projection of our future.
I found this book one of the more thought-provoking books I have read in quite a while.

Dystopian thriller with elements of space opera. The protagonist is a brilliant engineer who we first meet at the first run of his dark matter fueled fusion reactor. He and his family become embroiled in waging war against an all knowing government that monitors and controls the population by means of visual and neural implants, the removal of which mandate the death sentence. During the adrenaline fueled course of the novel the middle aged engineer becomes a warrior, invents numerous weapons and flying motorcycles, hacks control networks and overcomes potentially lethal wounds from a superhuman opponent. This is the first of a series.