The story begins in the 2030s. The Great Purge, a plague infinitely worse than Covid, wipes out a large part of the world's population. After his long convalescence, Andre, a wealthy writer, is now a paraplegic as well as blind. He engages Jared, a solicitous personal care attendant, and manages to remain more or less independent in his boyhood home on the East Coast.
Andre also invests in android development. After all, androids are very much needed to fill many jobs after the deaths of so many humans. But neither Andre's motives nor those of a great many others are entirely altruistic.
The story moves quickly into the worlds of mob bosses, drug deals, prostitution, and even art forgery, but also into the emotional realm of growing attachment between Andre and Jared.
What people thought were their servants soon get more ambitious ideas, and they move into the world of politics. They twist religious texts into cloaks of respectability and justification for their actions. The results of their power grab, of course, are disastrous for humankind. Only the epilogue offers a hint of rebellion and a ray of hope.
Succinct, often moving, and chillingly plausible, this is a tale of near?future possibilities that we can only hope are not just over the horizon here in 2023.
Autorentext
I was born in Lewiston, Maine in 1963. Shortly thereafter, I moved to Attleboro, Massachusetts with my parents and my siblings, Denyse and Remy.
In 1968, I began attending Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts as a residential student, graduating in 1982. I enrolled at Rhode Island College in 1982. I graduated from there in 1987 with a BA in computer science and a second BA in English literature, with a focus on creative, technical, and analytical writing.
In the late 1980s through the early 2000s, I tried my hand at my own business, which focused on software for the blind and visually impaired. I have done various types of work in Web testing, computer programming, and usability studies.
I am currently living in Attleboro, Massachusetts. I work for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority as an ADA Compliance Tester. I also work for companies as a Usability Tester for the blind and visually impaired.