Lee Willard

From the Heartland (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

In the USA of 2268, every boy is crew cut, every girl's skirt reaches below her knees, every parent is shown respect, the town deputy knows every name. One hardly ever sees a stranger in the flesh. Cities have all but disappeared, commerce and employment is on-line. To keep the USA the utopia it has become, only real men are allowed to wed, own property and vote, and thus the manhood tests that Darryl must pass before he can be a full citizen with the right to vote, own property and wed.

Without his Manhood, he can be a farm hand in a bunk house, a menial worker in a rented room or he can join the service where he can remain a low ranking enlisted man. His only other legal alternative, voluntary ascension into simulation. So it is all important that he pass those tests, his whole future, and that of his girlfriend depend on it.

This is in fact a look at racism as seen thru the eyes of a Caucasian male who does not have the genetic predisposition to be racist but has never had the experience of meeting someone from another race until now. We also look at two 'utopias,' the one that the rabid right seems to want and the one the left seems to be aiming for. In real life neither of the new nations described here would actually work without modifying human nature but the sci-fi format lets us use this as a backdrop to the relationship between Darryl and Keisha.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Lee Willard
• Erscheinungstermin: 7. April 2021
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781005789381
• Artikelnr.: 72788227

Autorenporträt

I am a retired embedded systems engineer and sci-fi hobbyist from Hartford. Most of my stories concern Kassidor, 'The planet the hippies came from' which I have used to examine subjects like: What would it take to make the hippy lifestyle real? How would extended lifespans affect society? What could happen if we outlive our memories? How can murder be committed when violence is impossible?

I have recently discovered that someone new to science fiction should start their exploration of Kassidor with the Second Expedition trilogy. To the mainstream fiction reader the alien names of people, places and things can be confusing. This series has a little more explanation of the differences between Kassidor and Earth. In all of the Kassidor stories you will notice the people do not act like ordinary humans but like flower children from the 60's. It is not until Zhlindu that the actual modifications made to human nature to make them act that way are spelled out. To aide that understanding I've made The Second Expedition free.

I am not a fan of violence and dystopia. I believe that sci-fi does not just predict the future, but helps create the future because we sci-fi writers show our readers what the future will be and the readers go out and create it. I believe that the current fad of constant dystopia and mega-violence in sci-fi today is helping to create that world, and I mention that often in reviews and comments on the books I read. I also believe that the characters in those stories who are completely free of any affection are at least as unnatural as the modified humans of Kassidor.

In my reviews, * = couldn't finish it. ** = Don't bother with it. *** = good story worth reading. **** = great and memorable story. ***** = Worth a Hugo.