Ohio 2029

Ohio 2029: Utopia Has Never Been So Wrong is written by D.A. Winstead and is about the state of affairs of the country after a huge stock market crash that has caused America to split apart amongst its political parties, and this is the fallout.

In a sense it can definitely be classified as a dystopian novel, but it is scarier than most. While reading this book I could feel this as being a VERY real possibility for our country. I would like to think that things would never go this far, but it is hard to define a VERY real divide in America between the two major political parties.

Starting with an intro from 2015 that features an economic implosion that makes the last major crash look tame in comparison. The timeline then moves on with short snippets and news headlines, the reader is caught up to the future. The public has completely rejected the Democratic Party with the crash happening during Obama’s time in office. The Republican Party has now been lifted up as saviors, disbanding big government and sectioning it out to different states. However, there is still a lot of anger and rebuilding that must take place.

Rioting occurring in many states leads to those locations being partitioned off as zones, and as things get worse, marshal law is brought into the zones for order. To teach the country a lesson and to move forward, any openly affiliated Democrat is then moved to within reach or even put inside of the zones for punishment. The theory is that if they want to live in a state of being supported by the government and in a state of sharing all that they have, then they can do so within those zone. In the meantime the rest of the country will move on with life and rebuild in a stronger and smarter way, albeit more carefully and strictly with many freedoms American’s have known unable to be given back at this time.

In the middle of all of the chaos the story follows the lives of two families. One is a red state senator’s daughter named Mary Catherine Marshall and the other the boy who used to live next door Maddie Garner. Maddie’s family was relocated to the dirtiest and most violent reform zone in Cincinnati, Ohio. In a way this is a modern political party Romeo and Juliet, but it is so much deeper than that.

Winstead has created a world that is scary to think about and one I hope we never come close to. With so much hate and fear in this world today, it is easy to see how a novel of this caliber could take hold within our hearts. The scenes came alive before my eyes in a desperate manner of living for many. The people were real and easy to connect, root for, and abhor.

I give this book 5/5 stars. Definitely something I probably wouldn’t have picked up on my own, but I would have missed out on some wondrous storytelling, strewn from the heart of our country’s security fears. Winstead translated these fears and bleak outcomes in brilliance. If you are into futuristic novels, sci-fi, political thrillers, romance, dystopian, fiction, suspense, etc., you should definitely pick this one up.

*I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Ice Cap and The Rift

The Ice Cap & The Rift is written by Marshall Chamberlain and is book 2 in the Ancestor Series. This book picks up where the first book (Mountain Place of Knowledge) left off. The main character of Dr. John Henry Morgan is still the main player of the story with a new event revolving around a combo-quake that has made a huge split in Iceland, exposing a huge rift and possible caves.

The pace of this book is a lot faster than the initial book with the Chinese, CIA, and UN all vying to be in charge of anything that may have been exposed. There is of course a return in alien technology to include alien mobile craft.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ancestor part of the story as well as the descriptions of the newly found environment. Unfortunately I wanted more time to be spent in the environment exploring, and to have a better sense of the size of the found area that was entered.
This book has a main focus on the red tape, and political movement fight that is trying to stay one step ahead of the Chinese and trying to negotiate with the CIA and Americans while appeasing the UN and not compromising the upper hand.

There was definitely a LOT of nail biting action and it was great to see Dr. Morgan take a stand. His ignorance at the feelings between Dr. Mary Ellen Rollins and himself is so frustrating at times. I had moments of wanting to reach through the book and slap some sense into him for her.

Chamberlain does a superb job of making identifiable characters. I had many moments of feeling like if this book was a tv show that I would be yelling at the characters to connect the dots and see what was right in front of them. I love the Triad connection, and found it highly interesting and entirely plausible.

If you know your current events in world powers, this book is definitely an intriguing and exciting look at how all of the players in the game for “power” line up and contend with one another, while trying to save face for the press. As a computer/intel geek I loved the set up at the underground work space and the brilliant descriptions.

Overall I give this book 5/5 stars as it is very well written and comes from a brilliant mind. The Ice Cap & The Rift definitely takes a different tone than the original book, but it is still the ongoing cat and mouse game. I hope to see more of the Ancestors and the exploration of the Alien Technology in the next book, and maybe we can FINALLY get a jump on the Chinese before the end is here. If you are into suspense, adventure, sci-fi, fiction, political, action, espionage, etc.

*I received this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.