Death Warrant

Went with audio on this, Justine Eyre and Holly Palance do a good job. One did the narration when the main character wasn’t involved, which I liked somewhat less, but was still enjoyable. The other, voicing the main character, Frankie, did a fantastic job.

Death Warrant is the largest TV show of all time. It features people who have chosen to sign up and be killed off for the enjoyment of millions. The seemingly only positive side, the advertisement earned in the episode is paid out to the loved one of their choice. It’s usually in the millions.

At the novel’s start, Frankie is interested in signing up. She’s a professional mentalist, doing odd jobs mostly, but she does have a bi-weekly night show as well. While she’s not unsuccessful, her brother suffered an accident, where he received brain damage, and therefore he’s hardly scraping by with his old student loans chasing him. So Frankie wants to clear those debts for him forever. The thing is, whether the network decides to work with them or not, they’ve mastered wiping the interviewees memory, so that they’ll have absolutely no memory of the attempt. No desire to re-sign up, and no stressing the supposed day of death.

This felt similar to Mark Towse’s The Generation Games, while not involving ageism, they both travel down to one of the most extreme natural conclusions to where the world could go. With the growing violence of shows, games, movies, where will the need to outdo eventually take us? And I loved the little tidbits in this one that were somewhat scifi-esque that showed it was near future, while not taking away from the story.

I really enjoyed how the author does not tell the reader whether or not Frankie was accepted into the program. And when things start going really well for her, and her success is on the rise, it’s always on the back of the readers mind that the big day could be coming. I really thought this was a good showing of how good things come to those who wait, or even, good things are right around the corner if you just hold out. Especially because the TV show itself is just a high paying form of suicide. The twist at the end does kind of subvert my feelings on that being what the author’s actual message was, but I still enjoyed where it led to regardless.