Death of a Nation

As I said, twofer day.

Finished up Robert Jackson Bennett's Vigilance at a soccer game this morning. While some of the set up has been done before, it's always interesting to see different narrative threads escaping from what could be an overused idea.

We center on two characters in the novella. One is John McDean, an executive producer at ONT, which is essentially a biased news/entertainment channel that's focused mainly on older viewers. The other, Delnya, works at a dive bar. The two never meet, but the actions of one eventually have a big effect on the other.

One of ONT's biggest programs, which doesn't have a regular broadcast schedule is Vigilance, in which 3-4 active shooters are chosen from a pool of applicants and sent in without warning to an inhabited area to, well, basically start a mass shooting. If they survive, they win a bunch of money. If a civilian survives, they win a bunch of money. Point being, since no one knows where or when it's going to happen, most civilians have no idea they're about to be on TV.

Set in 2030, the basic set up is that due to global climate change and the death of American industry, most of the youth have moved abroad to South America or Asia. China's economy has far surpassed the US, so the majority of the Us population is now older, insular, and convinced they're still relevant. The show itself came about after a live streamed mass shooting that was rebroadcast across multiple digital formats that due to being digital, had advertising attached. While companies were understandably initially upset about their logos being broadcast during this, it turned out it actually made their sales skyrocket. In the end, a compliant government gave their tacit approval, and the show was born. Using AI color commentary, encouraging viewers to Remain Vigilant and Armed at all times to prevent being shot in public and to be able to FIGHT BACK against the Other....

Delnya's bar is showing the episode when it goes live. We see how the viewers at home react to the carnage through her eyes, as the bar goes to Happy Hour pricing through the event as the patrons start betting on outcomes. Delnya, who;s father was a cop who got shot in a dark alley after being mistaken for a perp, tends to view the show as a terrible idea, and tends to think that patron's view that guns answer all questions instead of raising other more pertinent questions and better risk analysis, is not happy about watching people get shot in a South Bend mall.

We watch as John uses the AIs to change a woman who takes out a shooter from Vietnamese to Irish to satisfy the viewers who feel threatened by dark skin. We see how the team behind the show use technology to lead one of the other two shooters to her so they don't have to pay her.

It's really ugly after a while, and no one gets a happy ending.

While we've seen similar set ups in books and movies (The Running Man, Series 7: The Survivors), this is a different thread to pull on and Bennett does so quite well. While I'm sure some readers would likely start screaming at the book due to some of the politics, much of what he has to say should be considered before outright rejecting it, or rejecting it just for being presented.