Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
As Robert Spofforth ascends to the top of the crumbling Empire State Building, his only wish is to be able to step off the ledge. But as one of the last androids tasked with overseeing the bleak persistence of mankind, his programing prevents him from ending his long and tired life. In this world where reading has been forgotten, physical contact is forbidden, and the vestiges of humanity idle away their days in a narcotic haze, the future is decidedly grim. But when Paul Bentley, an unremarkable man who makes a remarkable discovery, shares his new knowledge--called reading--with an unusual woman named Mary Lou, the order of their desolate world is challenged and a new hope for humanity glimmers amid the ruins.
Synopsis
A haunting, dystopian vision of humanity and its last hope for survival as told by the
New York Times bestselling author of
The Queen's Gambit In the future, the human race has ceased to progress. Granted endless leisure by widespread automation, the masses devote themselves solely to the pleasures of the here and now, to drugs that dull their senses and electronic bliss that disconnects them from reality. Theirs is a world that is without meaning or purpose, without art, children, or reading, and overseeing the bleak persistence of humanity is an intelligent machine whose only wish is to extinguish its own existence. But when two ordinary people begin to fight the system, hope for the human race glimmers in their journey as they attempt to realize the full potential of humanity.
Synopsis
Set in a far future in which robots run a world with a small and declining human population (San Francisco Chronicle), a haunting, dystopian vision of humanity and its last hope for survival from the bestselling author of The Queen's Gambit In the future, the human race has ceased to progress. Granted endless leisure by widespread automation, the masses devote themselves solely to the pleasures of the here and now, to drugs that dull their senses and electronic bliss that disconnects them from reality. Theirs is a world that is without meaning or purpose, without art, children, or reading, and overseeing the bleak persistence of humanity is an intelligent machine whose only wish is to extinguish its own existence.
But when two ordinary people begin to fight the system, hope for the human race glimmers in their journey as they attempt to realize the full potential of humanity.