Review: If you love dystopian fiction with totalitarian governments, don’t miss this
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 8, 2013
Sometime in the not-too-distant future, Brandon Ward, a disgruntled Gulf War veteran leads a military coup in the United States of America, promising to end the USA’s foreign wars and hold elections in a short time. He is popular at first but when people discover that he wants to hold on to power, they start rebelling. He turns the country into a police state, changes the name of the country to The Ten Provinces of America and changes its currency from the dollar to the lucre. He puts up many repressive measures to tighten his grip on power. NASP is one such measure. Disguised as an anti-terrorist measure, NASP (National Anti-Terrorist surveillance Programme) is a measure to monitor people’s speech and movements. Under NASP the government puts NASTs on the necks of everyone with the exception of high-ranking government and military officials. A NAST (National Anti-Terrorist Surveillance Tool) bills a person for speaking. Every citizen has a pre-paid NASP account. When the citizen speaks, the NAST recognizes his voice and starts deducting money from his account. When he speaks without money in his account, the NAST gives him an electric shock. The government can record the citizen’s speech and track him using the NAST. It is against this background that the main character, Freddie must try to free his friend from prison where he awaits execution. This is a real thriller.