SEVENTEEN By Mark Diehl
Blurb:
Most of the world's seventeen billion people are unconscious, perpetually serving their employers as part of massive brain trusts. The ecosystem has collapsed, and corporations control all of the world's resources and governments. A bedraggled alcoholic known as the Prophet predicts nineteen year-old waitress Eadie will lead a revolution, but how can she prevail when hunted by a giant corporation and the Federal Angels it directs?
Excerpt:
"I know what you did, Sett. There is a Federal Angel with me right now. He wants to talk to you. He would like to know why you helped some waitress escape after she killed Matt Ricker. Switch to visual. Now."
He blinked hard and wiped a palm across his forehead. A sickly gray light seemed smeared along the opposite wall, having filtered through the filthy window at the end of the hallway. The floorboards creaked as he shifted his weight.
"Is it true, Sett?" his mother asked. "Why would you get yourself involved in a debacle like that? Why? When everything was going so well for you?"
He stared down at the stained plywood floor, now spotted with teardrops.
"What were you thinking? A waitress? You know better than to go getting messed up with people like that. They'll drag you right down with them, every time. You come home right now and explain to this Angel exactly what happened; I'm sure he'll understand. But I'm not going to lie to you. There will still be fallout. Society does not tolerate wretched, uncivilized behavior. I can't guarantee you'll be allowed to remain at Fisher."
"I wasn't thinking at all, Mother. I was just doing it, all of a sudden." He sniffed. "She was hurt, and they started it, not her. Nobody else would help. What was I supposed to do? Just let her die?"
"Oh, Sett." His mother sighed. "Of course you were."
My Review:
I received a free copy of the book from the author for my honest opinion.
Well it has finally happened the people have killed the planet. Earth is dying but with over seventeen billion people in the world what can you except. Most of these seventeen billion people are already dead but they have found a way to keep them alive kind of. The bodies is nothing but rotting flesh hooked up to machines that keep their brains working and used as a "brain trust" a place to store information to be used by the company.
If you are lucky enough to work for the company then you are doing well. The company takes care of all of your needs no matter what they are. Well as long as they think you need it that is. If you work for and do exactly what the company and God tells you to do then you are top dog but if you break one of their rules and not do as they say then you are in big trouble. But no need to harp on it for long though because you can either go voluntary or involuntary (either way is fine with the company) to be reconditioned or brain washed to follow the companies rules and do as God says.
Then we have the people who live in the zone. Now these people don't have it so nice. Oh they are expected to follow the rules but they don't get everyone of their needs met. For them to survive they have to sell drugs, steal, barter for food or whatever it is they may need. A lot of the people who live in the zone don't even have a home. They live or sleep where ever they can find a place to lay their heads. But some of the people that live in the zone have it a little better. Some do have jobs and homes or a room to go to at night to lay their head down and sleep.
Seventeen has a lot of different characters not just in numbers. The characters in Seventeen are mixture of people who live in different environments or society. The characters in Seventeen are all treated differently just because of whom they are and what part of town they live in. The "General" Eadie is a waitress who lives in the zone who once live a different live not in the zone. Once a upon a time Eadie's parents worked for the company so they lived higher up on the ladder until one day something happened and both of her parents were fired and they had no choice but to move and they ended up in the zone. So Eadie knows how it is to live in both worlds. She knows that the way the people in the zone are being treated is wrong and wants to change it.
Eadie had no idea that she was going to have a hand in trying to change things as they knew it when she went to work that day but when she saw these guys who were upperclassmen, (college students who would one day work for the company if they did as they were told that is) attack an older man in the diner it pissed Eadie off to the point where she was fighting these guys. They missed her up pretty bad but she was lucky that there just happened to be a first year student at the diner that didn't like the upperclassmen or the way he had to live. He didn't like being told what to do by his father or the company all the time. He was like Eadie he thought everyone should be treated the same. Sett and Eadie didn't know that that day was just the beginning of their fight to change the world. To make it a better place for everyone.
I like all of the characters in Seventeen and had no problem seeing them in my head as if I was watching a movie. I would love to see Seventeen on the big screen. I can't wait to read more about the company and the people who live in the zone as well as all of the characters in Seventeen. Can Eadie, Sett, the Prophet and Dok change the world? Can they make a beginning to start the change that everyone needs? Can they save the world? Or will the planet die alone with humanity?
About the Author:
Mark D. Diehl writes novels about power dynamics and the way people and organizations influence each other. He believes that obedience and conformity are becoming humanity's most important survival skills, and that we are thus evolving into a corporate species.
Diehl has: been homeless in Japan, practiced law with a major multinational firm in Chicago, studied in Singapore, fled South Korea as a fugitive, and been stranded in Hong Kong.
After spending most of his youth running around with hoods and thugs, he eventually earned his doctorate in law at the University of Iowa and did graduate work in creative writing at the University of Chicago. He currently lives and writes in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Giveaway:
Virtual Book Tour Organized By Goddess Fish Promotions
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