America Inc.

This is not my typical genre of book that I would pick up , but I was intrigued , so I picked it up to try. It was good overall , with a storyline full of twists & turns that kept me at the edge of my seat. It was dull at times , and didn't interest me in some scenes, but it was still a decent enough book that I will be recommending to all. 
An excellent book if you're into dystopian-like thrillers.

While I'm typically a fan of dystopian literature, much of it seems formulaic or overdone. Mikael Carlson's America, Inc., provided a fresh spin on the the concept with clever details like the "ticker tape" running at the top of each chapter. Normally I'm not a fan of shifting POV, but it works very well in this case. The only complaint I would have is that the Rykos character seems a little too loyal to the current regime considering how much he does not like his father. I get that it moves the narrative along, and sets up the sequel well, but it doesn't quite seem true to his character. Other than that, I thought the author did a good job of creating an alternate world where the perceived excesses of today take us to a very unpleasant future.

Well, that was engrossing.

It was after a long time that I felt like picking up a dystopian novel, and I’m glad I did.

Although, I’m not 100% certain that ‘America Inc.’ is dystopian in the broadly accepted meaning of the word. I mean, the future in the story is different (and not exactly bleak), but it has enough to connect it to our world for it to seem all too plausible.

This is an Orwellian tale for the modern reader, with capitalism replacing ideology, and peppered with cautionary advice.

It’s nearing the end of the 21st Century, and the world as we know has long since ceased to exit. After a crippling economic collapse in the third decade of this century, corporations have taken over the world.

There are no countries anymore, just corporations (America Inc., India Inc. You get the picture); no citizens, only employees. Corporations and their cities (subsidiaries?) are governed by CEOs. Gross incompetence is a capital crime.

At the heart of it, America Inc. is a pulsating whodunit wrapped around a tale of Machiavellian intrigue and political grandstanding.

A series of devastating terrorist attacks against the global trading regulator, Intercorpex, threaten to cripple the world economy.

It’s a story as old as time — rebellion against the established order by any means necessary. Often by people once part of that very order.

This time, the group of insurgents wants a return to the life of old, where poverty existed, but people had true liberty.

The story is brilliantly, unusually (at least for me) told — unusual in that each character gets a first person POV. Each character has a distinct voice. This is incredibly hard to pull off — not only to give each character his or her voice, but to maintain and develop it with the story. It’s impressive in scope and execution.

The characters are also well-developed from those in the shadowy halls of power right down to those in the trenches. I will not go into too much detail, as the joy of the book is to grow with the characters.

I will, however, say that I found myself drawn to Chief Inspector Zyree, a no-nonsense, hard-nosed investigator who was ostensibly given carte blanche to solve the mystery of the terrorist group, which he does in a nerve-wracking finale.

Given that this is the first part of the ‘Black Swan’ trilogy, the story ends on a satisfactory note. I look forward to continuing the series.

The year is 2088 and the world is a very different place. After a global economic collapse, corporations have taken the place of governments. The United States of America is now America, Inc. and the seat of power is NYC. Everyone has a job, as long as they follow the rules. War, hunger and poverty have become the stuff of legends. The price of this “utopia” is that every aspect of life is controlled by the Corporation. There is a segment of society, however, that lives off the grid and they are determined to take back control of their lives by whatever means necessary.  When these “terrorists” launch an attack on NYC, the Corporation realizes that all that they have built and accomplished will be undone. Can this disruptive force be stopped or will the world return to the chaos it once knew?

America, Inc. by Mikael Carlson is Book 1 of the Black Swan Saga. I was amazed by how Carlson has created a novel that could very well predict the future we are actually headed toward in America.  This is a very different dystopian novel than what we are used to. Instead of a world wrecked by a disaster, such as nuclear war or plague, the disaster in America, Inc. was an economic one. I have already purchased books  2 and 3 and can’t wait to read them. I would give this book 4/5 stars.

*A copy of this ebook was the only consideration received for this review.*