Chuck Finley wrote a book, and I wrote a review (eventually) · 5:30pm Jul 25th, 2016
He did! tl;dr it's really good, go read it.
Company Town
All good detective stories require three things to function: A cop, a mystery, and a rooftop showdown. Chuck Finley's Company Town has all three of these and, as a bonus, the dame that did the cop wrong.
Though the dame in this case is faster than light travel, and she screwed everybody.
On the surface, the mystery isn't so mysterious: the cessation of AI and FTL has left the local society on the brink of collapse, and our hero - Detective Clay - has to find a psychic criminal who may well be the only man who can save it.
In any familiar setting this would be a bog-standard action adventure romp, but from the very start there's something not quite balanced about Clay's world. Words and concepts don't quite fit the way you think they're supposed to. Retirement is a punishment. Imprisonment is a death sentence. Just about everything remotely entertaining is banned. Every form of business is administered remotely and nobody is really in charge.
On the surface it seems like your typical futurist dystopia, but I've come to find that the "the surface" is nearly always a distraction in Chuck's writing, and this is most definitely the case here. As Clay digs deeper into the mystery behind her psychic criminal, what appears to be a rough, dystopic but otherwise mundane world is transformed into the sort of authoritarian nightmare that keeps preppers and libertarians awake at night, and the mystery she was originally pursuing is swept away by a far greater one.
What she finds is... to use the cliché, not what she expected. Anyone who is a fan of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal will appreciate the surprising reality she uncovers.
You can find out how to buy the book on Chuck's blog. I suggest you do.
You're a star, Arch!
Huh. Yeah, that ending does have a certain SMBC-ishness to it. Hadn't thought about it in that way until now.
4112136
Okay, I bought it. And I am a man known for his love of Lattés and good science fiction. This had better deliver!
4112501 Don't worry, it does in spades.
4112695
Well... You were right! That was worth a Latté!
4112136
Well done! I had figured out a good part of pretty early on (the title is a giveaway, especially as I have a degree in math and an MBA) but not all of it before the final scene. Overall I am quite satisfied with my investment in dollars and time!