Name: Veracity
ISBN: 9781439123348

Laura Bynum

Surviving a viral terrorist attack that has wiped out one-third of the American population, young Harper witnesses the formation of an invasive new government dedicated to suppressing all forms of resistance by electronically monitoring all people and meting out harsh punishments.

Veracity

Sarah Sammis

Veracity takes place in the near future in a dystopian society that becomes frightenly familiar as the novel progresses. Science fiction is built on a solid foundation of social commentary and the dystopian subgenre holds true to that tradition. By taking the worst pieces of modern society to extremes a novel can provoke discussion on those very flaws. It's not so much about how plausible is the imagined future as how much of ourselves can we see reflected in this society?

The first person heroine, Harper Williams was born the same year my own daughter was. She is just barely old enough to remember life before the Pandemic. At a time when the human mind was opening up to psychic powers (as Harper has), the population was dying off, leaving behind a shattered society that is forced to control the survivors. They do so with an implanted device called a slate.

The novel is told in chunks of time told out of order. It starts in media res with Harper choosing to abandon society and break her slate at the risk of death or worse. It then goes back to different times in Harper's life to explain how she got to where she did. As the present day (2045) plot gets into gear, I wish the flashbacks would stop but they don't completely. Please give the book more than 50 pages. It's worth the initial effort.

A totalitarian society is only as strong as it's propaganda machine. Veracity is about getting to the truth behind the recorded history. Veracity is also much more but I don't want to spoil it for you.
You will probably like Veracity if you like:

 * 1984 by George Orwell
 * Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
 * The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
 * The Postman by David Brin

Veracity

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