Monday, April 15, 2024

The Disposable Soma by Zeb Haradon

Centuries from now, politics have changed dramatically. The Democratic Party are Conservatives, The Republican Party are Liberals, and the Empathy Party are Anti-Socialists. There is about to be a robot on the Supreme Court, opium and other drugs are commonly used by most everyone, addiction and withdrawal symptoms are easily removed by taking another readily obtained drug, and cybernetically enhanced intelligent parrots are common companions/pets. They are even among the most popular bands. 


This book is a political satire that seems to be about the absurdity of politics and politicians. It shows the lengths that they are willing to go to in order to try and win an election, knowing that most of them have no interest in trying to change anything or make life better for anyone. One of them is even willing to have an opium addicted parrot who is the lead singer of a famous band as his vice president.


This book has quite a few subplots going on in addition to the main election story, making it a rather busy story. The subplots are so intertwined throughout the story, that it took me a while to realize that they were all meant to show the extremes that each of the characters would go through to achieve their own desires, no matter what the cost.


For a good portion of this book, I thought I was seeing some typos in the format of two words that had dropped a space from between them, but toward the end of the book it was made clear that it was intentional. It was supposed to be an example of how language shifts over time, but for me, it threw me off until the explanation came late in the book.


I received a review copy of this book, and honestly, I'm not really certain what I think of it overall. Parts of it I enjoyed, while parts of it I had some trouble placing within the larger story as a whole. This book was the first book in a series, and I suspect that it will become clearer as the story continues to play out in later books. It’s an interesting story, but I feel like there was so much going on that I almost wished that some of the subplots had been left out, as I’m not entirely certain if they have been wrapped up or if they will be further explored in later books.


For me, I would rate this book rate at 3.5 stars. I did enjoy reading it, but I also feel like I missed more about what was supposed to be going on than I should have. I think that anyone who enjoys fictional tales about the absurdity of modern politics and the lengths that politicians will go to in order to win an election, will likely enjoy this book, as will those who enjoy political satire.


https://amzn.to/3VH3Dyu (link to book on Amazon)


https://books2read.com/u/mgyr1q (Books2read link to other vendors)


Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.

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