While I do not expect a collapse, it is not impossible. I do not think most of us understand the fragility of our current economic system. The decentralization of the market has been replaced with centralized corporate control. I think the market will keep a collapse from occurring. Of course, the market may be hobbled by government action.
With this in mind I thought I would put on the blog my Amazon review of a book I just read called Collapse by Richard Stephenson. I rated this book three stars.
Because of our economic malaise there are many books on the market that portray a quite dystopian future. The popularity of such books is based in part on the fears we have that things might get worse. As we read such works we can feel thankful that such a world does not yet exist.
I find the characters interesting, especially the grizzly police chief of a small Texas town and the world's richest, smartest man who is quite dysfunctional. All the various characters were quite good and believable.
Even Video Games Are Predicting Collapse. I am perfectly willing to suspend credulity when a read a novel of the future, but you need to at least have a plausible plot to explain how society became so dysfunctional. The proposed "bogey man," Iran, is a very unlikely superpower. How does Stevenson explain the lack of response of Israel to this? He proposes that Israel only had one nuclear bomb, which Iran somehow manages to steal. In addition, five separate hurricanes hit Florida at once. Give me a break. These plot details I found so implausible that it hurt my enjoyment of the novel.
While I can live with bad editing, the editing here was very bad, especially the huge paragraph margins--large enough to hurt readability. The frequency of short paragraphs also was an issue. As a blogger who writes about economic issues at my blog at prophecypodcast, I understand the difficulties of editing. I spend almost as much time editing as writing.
Can I recommend this book even at the reduced price of $2.99? While I got it for free on a special deal, I would not pay $3 for it. I doubt I will finish the series.