Sunday, December 18, 2011

Article 5-Kristen Simmons

Article 5


Kristen Simmons

Tor, Feb 14 2012, $17.99

ISBN: 9780765329585



Following the latest war to end all wars, the Unites States revokes the outrageous Bill of Rights that interfered with law enforcement security and enabled deviant behavior; and replaced it with the strict Moral Statutes. The Bureau of Reformation enforces the laws in which soldiers brutally hunt down and arrest anyone who is in noncompliance of the strict Moral Statutes. Those rule breakers are taken away and never return.



Seventeen year old Ember Miller remembers that just a few years ago it was okay to read all sorts of books before the massive censorship and going out at night was acceptable before the curfew. Though Ember is intelligent and more important flexible in working her way around the new system, she will soon learn how naïve she truly is. Her odyssey starts when soldiers arrive and arrest her mother for violation of Article 5 as “compliance is mandatory” with no alibis accepted. One of the arresting thugs is Chase Jennings, the young man Ember loved. Feeling betrayed, Ember vows to rescue her mom. Her journey is dangerous as the legal enforcers hunt violators and predators stalk the seemingly helpless like a female teen. With her on her quest is Chase



This dark dystopian thriller will remind readers of Big Brother in Huxley’s 1984 and Firemen in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Ember is a courageous protagonist while Chase goes from villain to hero. Action-packed, young adults (and us elders) readers will appreciate this timely cautionary tale as the fascinating Simmons world extrapolates from deployment of the Patriot Act (affirmed by the Defense spending bill) and other First Amendment “exceptions” enabling legal censorship and much worse.



Harriet Klausner

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