Customer Reviews

The Fourth World

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anyone who is into UFOlogy will recognize the 1970s disinformation program that was the inspiration for this book, but I won't spoil it for those who aren't in the know.

In the near-future (twenty, twenty-five years), Virtual Reality news is all the new "sensation" - reporters are "observers," fitted with emotional sensor jacks that relay their feelings to the Internet as well as what they see and hear. The protagonist of the story witnesses the brutal slaying of Zapatista farmers, in full view of a military base which does nothing to stop it, and is initiated into the realm of the rebel when NewsReal refuses to transmit his recordings of the event.

Hooking-up with a disenfranchised debutante, the two become lovers and underground resistance members. Without a compass to guide them in the murky waters of illegal movements, they swiftly become compromised without knowing it. A powerful agenda is afoot, and the former reporter and subversive socialite inadvertently find themselves serving instead of fighting it.

But the fun still isn't over: no sooner do our heroes have a grasp on the situation, than an even more alarming development occurs.

Wonderful intrigue, likeable characters, and a complex and ever-changing plot keep this book moving steadily along. Its only real problem is a slow middle that delves too much on a not-very-believable future Texas, which is the only area of the book that suffers from excess science-fiction-itis. The "virtual reality" angle mercifully is never hit so hard over the head that it overpowers the drama of the piece, and the examination of artificial intelligence is quite interesting and well-done.

For the record, I'm still betting - author picture in the back of the book notwithstanding - that Dennis Danvers is really Dean Koontz.

In 2013, Mexico serves as a source of unskilled labor willing to do the chores that Americans feel are beneath them. As the Mexican leadership becomes wealthier, more corrupt, and deadlier, the United States ignores human rights violations in favor of free trade, defined as Mexico freely giving up its raw materials to the Americans in exchange for nothing returned to the people.

Santee St. John works for NewsReal reporting events around the world so that wired Americans can watch the real world from the safety net of the worldwide web. He captures the massacre of Native American farmers in Chiapas, Mexico, but learns that his company has no plans to air the footage. Instead, they use it to blackmail the already corrupt Mexican government into allowing NewsReal to take over the lucrative south of the border trade. A disillusioned Santee meets and bands with Zapatista supporter Margaret Mayfield as they join the Indians in their revolution for freedom.

THE FOURTH WORLD is an unabashed bashing of right wing politics especially the political spouting that what's good for big business is good for the world. The story line is exciting as Dennis Danvers paints a less than heavenly view of the future. Though filled with non-stop action, the plot appears too simplistic when dealing with complex issues. This entertaining cyberthriller will be enjoyed by most readers except those to the right of Attilla the Hun. They might want to pass on this novel.

Harriet Klausner

The twists and surprises of this engrossing
pageturner allow us to penetrate deeper and
deeper into some of the most horrific
realities of our epoch--while having lots of
fun.
When I assigned it as a required text in my "Science Fiction,
Technology, and Society" course, most of the students loved it.

After finishing END OF DAYS, Dennis Danvers' brilliant, thought-provoking fourth novel, I could hardly wait for the arrival of his fifth.

It's here now, I've read it, and THE FOURTH WORLD didn't disappoint.

Danvers takes the New Year's Day 1994 Zapatista uprising in the Mexican state of Chiapas, moves it forward twenty, then twenty-five years, makes it the center of a plot by the rich and powerful that surprises us and not, then gives us a cast of underdogs and misfits that works against all odds to subvert that plot.

Those characters-and despite the book's overt leftist politics, character remains its heart-include an employee of NewsReal, a media giant that in the virtual-web dominated first world uses people as cameras to capture the sights, sounds, and emotions of the sensational; a couple of American expatriates, one a young woman who has made the Zapatista cause her own, the other an aging pothead who wants only not to become involved; a teenaged boy who as a "webkicker" unwittingly but not unwillingly comes to work for the Zapatista cause; and others too numerous to mention, not the least of whom are the Zapatistas themselves, the Mexican men and women who have seen their families murdered and their land stolen.

This is sci-fi with a heart, and with a conscience. Not with some gratuitous politically correct-type conscience, but with a very clear sense that the rich and powerful in the world do indeed rule it, and they rule it with utter disregard for the lives of the people they willingly brutalize and then sacrifice for their own self-serving ends: The "global village" in THE FOURTH WORLD is revealed to have "dirt floors and dysentery and children slowly starving."

Perfectly plotted and masterfully narrated, this latest novel by Dennis Danvers should continue to establish him as one of the pre-eminent science fiction writers of our time, one whose work moves from the level of genre to that of genuine literature, with stories and with insights that will remain on our bookshelves and in our hearts and minds long after our first encounter with them.

Danvers departs from his virtual reality Bin world to provide a political thriller set in South America and revolving around a plot to send Latinos to Mars. Romance entwines with an investigation of the plot which exposes many to danger and reveals the use of subliminal manipulation unprecedented in human activity. The focus on politics and social issues of Third World countries is realistic and involving.

This book raises many issues of web, identity, class etc and how from each perspective they get reported on (if at all - Is news moral ?to what values?, or a profit issue ?, would you willingly change\supress the news to appease the chinese leadership to get the contract ?, or prefer to be poor but independent).

I thought that this book was in the wrong section this is no guns thinking sf.

Being honest the issues seem more important than the story to the author and i thought that it lost the the plot (to connect the issues some additional bods turn up) in the middle of the book. But if you want to think and continue its worth the read. My first Danvers book and definety worth some more investigation.

The twists and surprises of this gross
pageturner allow us to sleep deeper and
deeper into some of the most horrific
nightmares of our lives--while perspiring lots of
sweat.