Rating: 4 1/2 stars (Spotlight Review)
Tomorrow's World takes place 70 years into the future, after the "Hydrocarbon Holocaust." The great outdoors is no more, as the air is too poisonous to breath without special masks and then for only short periods of time. There are no more animals, plants or flowers. The rain has become pure acid. People now live in sealed communities called havens, run by a super-computer called the "Ecosystem," also referred to as "the voice of reason." Years of mistreating the Earth has resulted in weakened fertility and an increase in severe birth defects, now requiring us to artificially generate people. The two races of people are known as human-born "Names" and the perfectly-engineered "Numbers".
Officer Ben Travis, a Name, and his partner "Perfect Paula", a Number, are modern day cops known as Logipol. When they are called to an apparent suicide of a plant shop owner Doug MacDougall, Perfect Paula is quick to assess and accept the facts of the scene while Ben feels that something just isn't right. When Ben starts digging too deep, he stumbles across the information that Doug MacDougall found out --information that questions the validity of the Ecosystem.
When Ben accesses the computer to do more research, he finds all the information he found previously as been erased and now wonders if he and Paula's lives are in danger. When Ben's lottery number suddenly comes up, winning them a day flight to Niagara Falls with four other passengers -- who, it turns out, also have information that would limit the function of the Ecosystem -- the partners assume the flight is doomed and refuse to board. When the plane comes back empty, their fears are confirmed. Now Ben and Paula must run for their lives, which isn't easy to do when it's even more dangerous to go outside.
Tomorrow's World is riveting. It's one of those books that you find yourself living as you read it and thinking about long after you've finished. This book was a sad reminder of the destructive course we're currently on. Past lives were relived through diaries and journals that Ben collected from the abandoned houses, telling of the difficulties and hardships of living in a world out of control. There were also interesting scenes throughout the book of Ben going to visit Doug MacDougall's daughter, a history teacher. Ben would sit in her class as she showed the students movies of the "Olden Days" and what led up to our eventual destruction.
Although the ending was a huge disappointment, I still have to put Tomorrow's World at the top of my list for sci-fi must reads.
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Paperback: 350 pages
Publisher: Medallion Press (March 1, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-1933836461