The Erased [Kindle Edition]

Grant Piercy (Author)

Book Description

You’ve been imprisoned by a shadowy government project and your identity has been erased; the only question is why. Welcome Home.

In a dystopian society where severe laws are in place to regulate the media you’re allowed to view, anyone and anything can be erased. Most people get their information and entertainment from the Knowledgebase -- a computer network dubbed the “sum total of human knowledge.” But forces are at work to edit and shape the Knowledgebase as they see fit -- suppressing dissident thoughts and behaviors. Their clear target: a group of rebels who hide in plain sight and call themselves the Transhumans -- people who remote into androids illegally, and whose goal is to eventually transplant a human consciousness into an android.

In the middle of this stands 77, a prisoner who’s been asked to repair a broken android for his captors. Once he solves the mystery of this android, he may find the truth behind the Transhumans, the elusive Knowledgebase architects, and the erased.

The Erased presents a near-future parable for the media age, where the march toward merging with technology comes at a terrible price.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"(Piercy) does present some established ideas in a way that chills as well as intrigues: a genuine 'censor wonder,' you might say." -- Ian Banks, Revolution Science Fiction (revolutionsf.com)

Product Details

• File Size: 509 KB
• Print Length: 212 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007FQ96L6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #612,398 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down March 28, 2012

By Mark Czubak

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed this novel! Usually it takes me a while to read a book, but I read this in two days. The use of modern music, places, and events make it so interesting and real, it's as if I'm watching a movie, not reading. The plot is so interesting and thought provoking that I couldn't stop reading because I just had to know what was going to happen next, and to me, that's what makes a novel great.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Smart, twisting thriller! March 20, 2012

By Andrew Hess

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

For a first-time novel, this is fast-moving and entirely entertaining book. The Erased quickly jumps right into the action, with a father being arrested by shadowy government forces and locked into "rehabilitation center," where he is separated from his wife and child. From there, he is systematically stripped of his identity and forced to work and answer questions for the all powerful system that he has somehow crossed. In no time at all you will start to question the sanity of not just the other inmates, but also the protagonist. What if he's wrong? What if everyone else is just as crazy? And what if they're all sane?Piercy does a deft job of mixing and weaving several different viewpoints, all of them identified by nothing more than the number they have been assigned.

The Erased wears most of its influences right out there in the open, but the author blends them together in a new and interesting way. While on the surface you can identify themes from 1984 and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and healthy amount of Cold-War Conspiracy Theories, what I was most often reminded of was the work of Dan Simmons, specifically his excellent Flashback. Piercy offers up a view of a nearly-there America where owning movies, music or books that aren't approved of can bring strict consequences, incarceration without trial, and no hope of escape, but he also shows us a glimpse of how the technology that can imprison us can also release us.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique style, story telling for the media age by the media age April 2, 2012

By Vinny banson

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

A great story depicting a not so far fetched future. Told concurrently from multiple perspectives, this novel keeps you on the edge of the page, and demends you to see and understand all sides of the story. The ending leaves you wondering who the antagonists and protagonists really are or who to really root for (or how you wish the future might look)...in other words it was a great story that left me wanting more.

More About the Author

I'm a self-published writer, originally from Illinois. I grew up in the orbit of the strange planet Chicago -- just out of reach, but just close enough that it feels like home. Relocated to central Ohio to be with my wife about a decade ago, so I suppose Columbus is my home now. For a number of years, I've worked in the courseware development industry, creating educational materials for IT companies.

I've been writing since I was a kid on my Dad's Apple II -- sometimes tidbit stories based on dreams, sometimes raving, suicidal anecdotes from a depressed teenager, but most often about trying to find connection in a world in which I've often felt alien. It shouldn't have been any surprise that, after failing to satisfactorily follow through on a massive tome more in common with a conspiratorial transgressive fiction novel, I gravitated toward science fiction, especially after discovering the work of Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut.

The first book I've self-published -- The Erased -- contains strands from all of the above influences. You might feel that yearning to connect that you'd see in the work of Chuck Palahniuk, the brevity of chapters and manic weaving of elements similar to Cat's Cradle from Vonnegut, and of course, the android problem of PKD. Whether or not I actually continue on in science fiction is a different story. I've got other works-in-progress that will hopefully see the light of day here.