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The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future [Paperback]

Thomas Nevins (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 19, 2008
Now that they are in power, there are no more checks and balances. The Conglomerates, and their mysterious party chairman, have taken over everything and everyone. There is no one left to stop them.

Forty years in the future, in a world where Big Brother runs amok, a powerful political party known as the Conglomerates has emerged, vowing to enforce economic martial law at any cost. Dr. Christine Salter, director of genetic development at a New York medical center, is in charge of “genetic contouring,” the much-in-demand science of producing the ideal child. But Christine is increasingly troubled by odd events, including the strange disappearance of Gabriel Cruz, a co-worker for whom she has a developing affection, and the fact that her latest assignment–making the Conglomerate chairman more youthful through genetic engineering–is an especially dangerous task.

As mandated by the Family Relief Act, Christine’s grandparents are relocated to a government-designed community in the American Southwest, along with other Coots (the official term given to the elderly), who are considered an economic and social burden to family and society. But even in this cold, cruel age, the Conglomerates can only control so much.

In his enthralling debut, Thomas Nevins thrillingly chronicles a brave new world where one family struggles to survive by keeping alive feelings of mercy, loyalty, and love.

Praise for The Age of the Conglomerates:


“Smart and exhilarating . . . a highly original debut novel, told in an exciting voice, that casts shades of Asimov.”
–Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Charlemagne Pursuit


From the Trade Paperback edition.
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Product Description
Now that they are in power, there are no more checks and balances. The Conglomerates, and their mysterious party chairman, have taken over everything and everyone. There is no one left to stop them.

Forty years in the future, in a world where Big Brother runs amok, a powerful political party known as the Conglomerates has emerged, vowing to enforce economic martial law at any cost. Dr. Christine Salter, director of genetic development at a New York medical center, is in charge of "genetic contouring," the much-in-demand science of producing the ideal child. But Christine is increasingly troubled by odd events, including the strange disappearance of Gabriel Cruz, a co-worker for whom she has a developing affection, and the fact that her latest assignment–making the Conglomerate chairman more youthful through genetic engineering–is an especially dangerous task.

As mandated by the Family Relief Act, Christine’s grandparents are relocated to a government-designed community in the American Southwest, along with other Coots (the official term given to the elderly), who are considered an economic and social burden to family and society. But even in this cold, cruel age, the Conglomerates can only control so much.

In his enthralling debut, Thomas Nevins thrillingly chronicles a brave new world where one family struggles to survive by keeping alive feelings of mercy, loyalty, and love.

Amazon Exclusive: Thomas Nevins Introduces The Age of the Conglomerates

Q: What could be relevant about a novel of the future?
A: Tomorrow is based on today. Take me, for example. I’m in the middle of life (I hope!), and in the in between generation. We have our parents to care for, and our children too.

But, this is a novel, with people, with hearts and minds, who like to be with one another, and hopefully, readers will too. The Age of the Conglomerates is a story about a family. They live in a world we have left them, a civilization administered by the private sector, where the Conglomerate party mega markets their message, and those who don’t buy into it, or fit, are shown the exit. I based two of the characters, Patsy and George, on my parents and the struggle they had when they became elderly, and a love that often healed them. I live and work with a lot of very talented and terrific young people and I wanted them to know that there are some of us who are thinking about them and want them to have a great future. And I wanted a chance to fulfill a dream and write a book, one that had a place, had merit, and is fun and a quick read. I hope you’ll give it a try.


Sincerely,

Thomas Nevins

From Publishers Weekly

Nevins's debut reads like the novelization of a film adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel. It's 2048, and the U.S. government is run by the Conglomerates, a political party controlled by the chairman, whose regime has transformed the demographics of the country: Coots, or those over 80, have been relocated to retirement communities, while problematic youth, or Dyscards, live in city subways. Christine Salter is the director of genetic development at the New York Medical Center, where she helps people create, or re-create their children and themselves through genetic manipulation. When her best employee and potential love interest disappears after being suspected of subversive activities, Christine cozies up with the chairman in order to find out what has happened to him. Meanwhile, her grandparents are deported to Cootsland, and Christine's estranged sister becomes a Dyscard. As Christine uncovers a sinister plot, she abruptly reconsiders the moral implications of her work and puts her own life at risk to save those whom society has forsaken. Readers willing to pardon the oversimplification of good versus evil may enjoy the slick presentation and Hollywood-like setup. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 294 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books (August 19, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375503919
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375503917
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,356,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful and complex., August 19, 2008
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This review is from: The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future (Paperback)
Completely enjoyed this novel of the near future. A cautionary tale of what might happen if corporations ruled the world. Not that far fetched if you look at what is happening today. Read it and enjoy.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars An unsatisfying dystopian vision, August 19, 2008
By 
This review is from: The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future (Paperback)
A near-future controlled by rampant corporations is not too hard to envision, but the dystopian prognostication of The Age of Conglomerates manages to be deeply unsatisfying. The economy has crashed dramatically, leaving the wealthy political party called "the Conglomerates" in de facto control of the government. Rather than enforce laissez-faire industry regulation and start lucrative wars to fill the coffers of their businesses the Conglomerates decide to become involved in social services, presumably for their own financial gain. Three government programs are described in this novel: creation of designer babies through genetic manipulation, mandatory removal of the elderly to national care facilities, and disposal of problem children in the subway system. Each of these programs has huge logical flaws, making the entire dystopian construct of this novel difficult to believe.

The protagonist, Christine, works as the head of a department that organizes the creation of designer children through genetic manipulation. Christine's own sister is a designer baby, and Christine remembers that her mother was never pregnant before bringing this clearly genetically related child home from the hospital. This leads me to believe the government is not only manipulating the genomes of embryos, but is somehow growing them in vitro, which would be both massively expensive and technologically unlikely, given that no other major technological improvements are introduced in the novel. The scientific description of Christine's work is almost pure gibberish (I happen to be a geneticist, unfortunately for the author), further enhancing the general aura of implausibility. However this is the most believable of the social programs instituted by the Conglomerates, as we can understand both the financial interest (selling the genetic services) and the motivation of the citizenry (to provide the best possible for their children).

Christine's grandparents have been rounded up and sent to Arizona as part of the government's second social program, the federalized care of the elderly (now known gracelessly as "Coots"). Persons over 80 are divested of their remaining property, transported south, and interred in government-run nursing homes. The very expensive medical care of the elderly could not possibly be offset by the value of their property, making this an odd choice for a government consumed by financial interest. Christine's younger sister has become a victim of the third social program, in which the government removes problem children for a fee, and then dumps them in the subway system. These discarded children are known, unsurprisingly, as the "Dyscards". In order to believe in the existence of these two programs, we would have to believe that the majority of the people of the future have become willing to sell out their parent's, grandparent's, and children's lives for a very modest financial gain. The only explanation provided for this rip in the social fabric is that "everyone became hard in the age of the Conglomerates". That is just not good enough.

Against this unpromising backdrop lies the story of the novel. The story is told is stilted language and compromised of unlikely coincidences (both Christine and her grandfather independently stumble upon antiquated computer equipment hooked into a still-functioning dial-up internet system), unnecessary action, and a smattering of the bizarre (a major plot device involves the transport of a dozen ill newborns in a hand-built subway car driven by a blind man). After all the main characters have been introduced it is abundantly clear what the ending will be, making the intervening action seem unnecessary. Having completed the book, I am not entirely sure what the message is meant to be. Dystopian novels are supposed to show us possible evils in human systems, that we may avoid them. All I see here is a confusion of amorphous fears and a pat ending.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Social Commentary, December 14, 2008
This review is from: The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future (Paperback)
Orson Scott Card states as a cardinal rule to be followed by anyone intending to write science fiction that a potential author be extremely well-versed in the genre. This author has not done his homework prior to embarking upon the exercise of building his new world. Science fiction allows an author to create a world of his or her choosing; however, a fanatic attention to detail is required in order to prevent the story from being merely a cautionary tale retold in artificial surroundings. Good science fiction does not allow a huge group of people to simply be ditched in subways with no means of support--heavens, this is a vast country.

Civilization is far too nuanced to be simply rewritten in a couple introductory pages. The seeds of some fine writing are present in this book but the attention to detail was lacking. Fine science fiction has a depth--you can pierce the surface and find an infinite wealth of detail; likewise in the fantasy genre. The worlds created by J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert are fantastic and strange but consistent. Age of the Conglomerates was just not consistent; like episodic television, it placed its characters, stated its plot and ground to the inevitable conclusion.

Our author had the admirable goal of showing the importance of family ties, of demonstrating the dangers of profligate government, he warns of the real consequences of placing immediate concerns above regard for the future. He has much to say about the potential dangers of genetic science and the fragility of our economy--but this story did his worthy ideas a disservice.
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The Age of the Conglomerates, Thomas Nevins, Gabriel Cruz, Border Patrol, New York Medical Center, Times Square, Conglomerate Rangers, Van Cortlandt Park, Christine Salter, New York City, Knickerbocker Hotel, Arbor Ward, Social Security, George Salter, Maureen Dunne, Queens Midtown Tunnel, Lucky Brother Number One, Family Relief Act, Brooklyn Bridge, New Year, Columbus Circle, Med Center
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