Foresight

First Phase

By: R. Gregory Lande

Narrated by: Matt Hicks

Nadene anxiously opened a letter from the Foresight Education Committee. With a sigh, she quickly scanned the contents and frowned as the document’s impersonal tone demanded mandatory training.

In a near-future dystopian world, government authorities decided that human memories, emotions, and pain were barriers to social progress. With the accidental discovery of a chemical substance, government leaders now had the means to shape society. In this post-apocalyptic world, two families grapple with the government’s proposal to administer the chemical to their children.

©2021 R. Gregory Lande (P)2022 R. Gregory Lande

Excellent Blend of Form and Function

Here we see a creative author assuming the difficult charge of crafting near-future fiction while maintaining a strong tether to the “reality of the probable." In no uncertain terms, this paradigm is handled with aplomb.

In a dystopian future where pharmacological interventions are deemed necessary to the prosperity and security of the country, what choices are citizens left with aside from compliance? Well-formed characters with clear motivations drive our plot, and interactions we witness always seem salient to what one might routinely encounter in a given day, but skillfully and effectively warped through the lens of the world Lande has created.

You can sense some tones of “Brave New World” but in this specific instance, the mandated treatment is an inhibitory remedy, rather than the compulsory euphoric one finds in Huxley’s novel, making for an interesting juxtaposition.

Additional credit should be given to the narrator, whose tone and cadence is soothing and non-distracting, and it avoids the “default monotone” that many narrated works unfortunately suffer from.

This is an all-around gripping, incisive story that’s absolutely worth a read. It’s availability in audio format makes it all the more appealing.