Ratings2
Average rating4.5
What will the fracturing of the United States look like? After the Revolution is an edge-of-your-seat answer to that question. In the year 2070, twenty years after a civil war and societal collapse of the "old" United States, extremist militias battle in the crumbling Republic of Texas. As the violence spreads like wildfire and threatens the Free City of Austin, three unlikely allies will have to work together in an act of resistance to stop the advance of the forces of the white Christian ethnostate known as the "Heavenly Kingdom." Out three protagonists include Manny, a fixer that shuttles journalists in and out of war zones and provides footage for outside news agencies. Sasha is a teenage woman that joins the Heavenly Kingdom before she discovers the ugly truths behind their movement. Finally, we have Roland: A US Army vet kitted out with cyberware (including blood that heals major trauma wounds and a brain that can handle enough LSD to kill an elephant), tormented by broken memories, and 12,000 career kills under his belt. In the not-so-distant world Evans conjures we find advanced technology, a gender expansive culture, and a roving Burning Man-like city fueled by hedonistic excess. This powerful debut novel from Robert Evans is based on his investigative reporting from international conflict zones and on increasingly polarized domestic struggles. It is a vision of our very possible future.
Reviews with the most likes.
overall, i respect robert for writing this and putting up the whole thing + audiobook + illustrations for free. i'd recommend it if you really like the podcast BTB and robert's sense of humor. i listened to it because i was kind of tired of the other content i was listening to, and this was a welcome break. to be honest, i probbably wouldn't have read the whole thing if i'd tried to read it as it's not the sort of thing that i usually read. i give him a lot of points for making a story that had me listening straight through despite the flaws that i think are present in it.
probably the biggest detractor for me: the incredibly frequent mention and description of hyperbolic drug use was really tiresome.
the second biggest was that i felt like a lot of what was happening was on the nose/over-explained by the book itself.
on the other hand, a big positive was that (ignoring the couple of clichés and repetitions) a lot of the descriptive prose was creative and fresh to me.
not sure if this exists, but if this is really a vision of the US/NA that Robert sees happening, i'd love to hear more detail re: how he thinks it could come about exactly.
i'll probably end up checking out the sequel to know what happens to certain characters, so props there too.