Arcadia’s defense corps is mobilized to defend against what first appears to be a routine assault, one of the many that the community must repulse from para- military forces every year. But as sensors report a breach in the perimeter wall, even 80-year-old Rachel Leopold shoulders a weapon and reports for duty. The attack, it turns out, has been orchestrated by one of the world’s largest corporations, CR ISPR International, and it is interested primarily in stopping Rachel’s research into stopping global warming. As Arcadia prepares to defend itself against the next CR ISPR attack, Rachel contacts Emmanuel Puig, the foremost scholar of her ex-husband’s work, to get information that she can use to stop CR ISPR . Arcadia intersperses the action with short reports from Emmanuel Puig on his interactions with Rachel as they meet, via V R, in different parts of the world—Brussels, Ningxia, and finally Darwin. The novel concludes with an explosive, unexpected twist that forces a reevaluation of all that has come before.
John Feffer is a playwright and the author of several books including Aftershock: A Journey into Eastern Europe’s Broken Dreams and the novels Splinterlands, and Frostlands. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Salon, and others. He is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies.
Publication date: November 13, 2018
—Foreword Reviews
"Devotees of near-future science fiction adventures will root for resolute and energetic Rachel on her quest to save Earth."
—Publishers Weekly
Praise for Splinterlands:
Feffer’s confident recitation of world collapse is terrifyingly plausible, a short but encompassing look at world tragedy. "
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Feffer’s book is a wild ride through a bleak future, casting a harsh, thought-provoking light on that future’s modern-day roots.”
—Foreword Reviews
"Just as it’s especially enjoyable to read science fiction written by real scientists, Feffer offers readers a uniquely well-researched and historically robust argument for why the world turns out the way that it does, which makes it all the more relevant—and frightening. "
—Washington City Paper
"Readers who enjoy dystopian stories that hold more than a light look at political structures and their downfall will more than appreciate the in-depth approach John Feffer takes in his novel."
—Midwest Book Review
"Splinterlands is a short and powerful dystopian novel, framed as an all-too-credible account of what might happen in our lifetimes."
—Climate and Capitalism
"John Feffer is our 21st-century Jack London, and, like the latter's Iron Heel, Splinterlands is a vivid, suspenseful warning about the ultimate incompatibility between capitalism and human survival."
—Mike Davis
“Feffer’s book, in short, is provocative in the best sense….The dystopic alternative, illustrated so powerfully in Feffer’s Splinterlands, provides us with powerful motivation to shape a better, less splintered, future.”
—W. J. Astore
"Splinterlands paints a startling portrait of a post-apocalyptic tomorrow that is fast becoming a reality today. Fast-paced, yet strangely haunting, Feffer's latest novel looks back from 2050 on the disintegration of world order told through the story of one broken family-- and offers a disturbing vision of what might await us all if we don't act quickly."
—Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickle and Dimed and Living with a Wild God, and founder of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project
“A chilling portrayal of where the politics of division could take us. Now I only hope he writes the sequel to tell us how to avoid it!”
—Naomi Oreskes, co-author of The Collapse of Western Civilization
