THE WORLD
In the distant future/past year 2025 Earth is becoming uninhabitable. Acid rain had killed the forests, the Amazon has been burnt to ash, pollution kills people in the streets of Denver if they don't have gas masks. Food is ultraprocessed and synthetic.
Meanwhile mass migration and overpopulation has turned cities into refugee camps as people live anywhere they can find room.
Northern New Jersey has been declared a "national sacrifice zone" since the cost of cleaning it up would exceed the value of the region. As a New Yorker this does my heart good and is a favorite part of the book.
Meanwhile computer technology particularly what we would call cloud computing and
AI have progressed to slightly better than the real world. One character is mugged and surprised the attackers want his $20 tablet rather than something valuable. Later a villain smashed the hero's computer and he shrugs since it's just a terminal, all the data is uploaded somewhere else.
A program called "Delta Doctor" can simulate people's personality and know them better than they know themselves. Basically an ask my anything version of the President, or the Pope or whomever living in your pocket. It's already brought down one President when people found out what he really thought.
Genetic tech has advanced far beyond where we are, with intelligence-enhanced primates and even humans.
With individualized and expensive care someone can be kept young for decades, our main character John Sinclair is in his 70s or 80s but looks like he's in his 40s.
Space tech is also up there with lunar colonies and the Soviets (qv) terraforming Mars. And discovering extraterrestrial artifacts, this i just mentioned in passing.
There are some bright spots, we see a tree lab where they are working to create pollution resistant breeds and reintroduce them. But overall things are bleak. Deforestation means the Earth may not have enough oxygen for its human population in a few years.
Into this comes the Depopulationist Movement, looking to kill off a third of the Earth's population (through poison drinks distributed randomly) headed by Indian holy man Gupta Singh.
The book is thoroughly researched and does this odd thing where it will cite real world articles along with real-seeming ones from the future. As a reader living in THE FUTURE you have to keep in mind that citations before 1987 are real, and post 1987 are made up. A clever technique in 1987, annoying in 2025.
THE PLOT
As mentioned our hero John Sinclair makes
AI simulations and he has now set out to do one of Gupta Singh and expose him. He is joined by his wife Allie, his son Scott, and his daughter in law Bell. The four trade off narrating with other characters also narrating parts as they are interviewed as part of the project. Another character of importance is the late Tom Sinclair who died saving people during deadly smog in Denver. He left behind encrypted notes which form the main McGuffin of the story.
The Sinclairs go from rich upperclass New Yorkers enjoying genetic treatments, extended youth, self-driving cars and screened air, to hunted fugitives as Gupta Singh goes after them. Their quest takes them from New York to Calcutta, and across the ravaged wastes of America.
In the process they learn that Gupta Singh is... actually a white dude! Which none of the billion plus Indian people noticed.
Finally they arrive at Magic a commune founded by the late Tom Sinclair where humans and primates with enhanced intelligence are working to save the world without a Thanos-like solution.
In the end Gupta Singh is defeated at the cost of John's life, and we are left wondering if humanity will safe itself.
A LOT to unpack there, which I will.
Tomorrow.
