ARA Review by Gigglesgr of World, Incorporated

The ARA Review Exchange is a system in which authors review other authors' books, generlaly in exchange for getting their own book reviews by other authors. However, the person who reviews a author's book is not the same person whose book that author reviewed. This way, author reviews do not influence each other, such as by an author being inclined to reward a good review by deliving one in return or deliver a negative review as revenge.

Moderator: Official Reviewer Representatives

Forum rules
Authors and publishers are not able to post replies in the review topics.
Post Reply
User avatar
Gigglesgr
Posts: 3
Joined: 09 Oct 2020, 16:17
Bookshelf Size: 0

ARA Review by Gigglesgr of World, Incorporated

Post by Gigglesgr »

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, World, Incorporated.]
Book Cover
4 out of 5 stars
Share This Review


World, Incorporated reminds us, and warns us, that relationships between government and corporations are always filled with intrigue, complications and double-dealing. World, Inc takes some long imagined conspiracies to its dystopian heights. What happens when governments collude with corporations to siphon tax revenues to contracts which give corporation the rights and duties that are expected to be performed by government? Citizens may feel that is the “best illegal use of taxpayer money.” Taxes paid and withheld from rightful obligations form the unexpected linchpin for the dissolution of true government.

Consolidation of corporations takes place with horizontal integration of industry. The development of security forces solidify their power. Agreement amongst the corporations eventual leads to just a few in control of the consumers of the world. There is constant observation and supervision and a Registry that holds data on everyone’s financial and genetic life. All of this results in less crime, pollution control and new genetic therapies. How do we know this? All the articles of 50 years of news, blogs, web links and mail are stored on a computer.

And what a computer! Shades of HAL. Franklin was embedded in the airship Chrome Wind. In addition to the computer on the airship the technological advances include stealth technology, booster boots, and hoists that rescue its occupants from their dubious operations. Technological advances inhabit all quarters of this universe. Digital signs at shopping malls not only have facial recognition but can read your embedded genetic information. Cyborgs resemble humans and can be programmed for good or evil. All this technology envelopes mankind. But what of freedom? Can we still recognize it’s meaning?

Nuggets of percipient details are found in the text including the store with salespeople replaced by sensors, no lines, no checkout, like an advanced Amazon Go Store. We find Democrats who want Unity and the Republicans who sabotage their efforts, Congress deadlocked and unable to act reads like today’s news.

Our protagonist, Agent Sliver, is an assassin working for World Inc. He has a hidden past. “The idea of sympathy was to him like what a description of color would have been to a blind man.” He also has an overwhelming anger and fervent wish to assassinate a particular target that has not yet been assigned to him.

Yet, he has a heart that leaves him unable to kill the daughter of his victim in the opening pages of this novel. Having rescued one soul, he tries to help her adjust to a world she knows nothing about, even as she despises him for eliminating her parents.

In due course we learn the truth of Agent Sliver’s animosity and his transformation from ordinary citizen to high level pawn of the multinational corporation, World, Inc. We watch as The Corporations continue to wage war for supremacy while secret underground hackers and patriots continue to resist.

The final twist and turns of the novel both answer nagging questions and open a myriad of philosophical issues to contemplate after turning the last page. This book rates 4 out of 5.

***
View World, Incorporated on Bookshelves
Post Reply

Return to “ARA Reviews (Authors Reviewing Authors)”