Future
Novel, light SF, 2360
By 2359ad only one colony has survived the Earth’s Great Wipeout. Leaders and hence factions and hence in-fighting are BAD but now they have to repopulate a wild surface they need strong, bad, leaders. The system selects a nerd who has to learn quickly.
Twenty one today! Matt is is wearing a uniform where uniforms are forbidden! He’s got to see the Colony Chairman. ‘A weak leader is a good leader’ so the saying goes which is how the colony survived 250 years underground when the Earth’s surface suffered the Great Wipeout. No leaders or uniforms or factions means no-infighting. The Chairman is affable but Matt’s worries are about to begin. The System is in a hurry to find a strong, bad, leader to repopulate the surface where things are wild and has decided to skip the traditional Rose Screens and go straight for a marriage. He’s got no idea whatsoever about women and less about sex. Their first night together is sabotaged by a joke sex manual, but the System will find a way. He’s never done anything anti-social but soon gets the hang of how to build a reputation and use it. Eventually the surface isn’t quite what he expected, as there are pockets of people occupying ruins although without electricity or law.
This book is all about personal development, team-building and leadership. Strangely, the most critical manager in the colony is effective but the anthesis of what we’d expect. When the time comes for Matt to inherit the symbol of spiritual power he starts to become a symbolic rather than actual leader.
One of the experiments was to have everybody in the colony finish their speech with the name of the person it was directed to. So instead of Fred said “Hello” then Bill replied “Not you again!” it goes “Hello Fred” “Not you again Bill.” You get used to it after a while and then it seems natural.
| Beginning | A5 PDF | |
| Beginning | 2-Col PDF | |
| Paperback | A5 328 pages | |
| Full ebook | A5 PDF | |
| Full ebook | 2-column PDF |