Blazing Reader,

Charlie Simpkins is no philosopher. He's just another "comrade" in the West Coast People’s Democratic Republic, operating a vegetable shop in Los Angeles. He smokes the government-issued Progress cigarettes, he drinks the rationed rotgut at the local class-four tavern and, generally, lives a life of silent compliance.

Until, one day, the government asks him to put up a communist propaganda poster, with the words "WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!" Instead of taping it to the window of his shop, he tosses it in the garbage.

That's how Powerless, a novel by Harry Turtledove, opens: With one man finally saying no, even though the consequences could easily involve time breaking rocks in a concentration camp.

Charlie understood all that. He didn’t feel particularly heroic about chucking WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! into the trash can. He was just sick and tired of giving lies a helping hand. The lies, no doubt, would go on all the same, but they could go on without him.

This alternative historical fiction is set in a parallel universe where Soviet ideology has spread around the world — forming individual "democratic republics" on "the path to true communism."

Powerless caught my attention because of the many parallels to my own novel, Much Ado About Corona. In its opening pages, the owner of a bakery (rather than a vegetable shop) has put up a sign (rather than taken one down) that opposes the COVID mask mandates ("No face, no service"). In both novels, refusal to parrot the state's ideology escalates to life-threatening consequences.

As the publisher's synopsis of Powerless puts it:

Powerless is a haunting dystopian tale of how even the smallest act of defiance can spiral into disaster in a society that demands total conformity. It serves as a chilling reminder of how easily standing up for one's principles can lead to crushing consequences... even in societies that claim to uphold freedom.

Powerless is one of the finalists for this year's Prometheus Award for Best Novel. I highly encourage you to order a copy (along with the other finalists) and vote for the winner.

The novel is also this month's pick for the Film, Literature and the New World Order podcast. James Corbett and I'll be discussing how the story helps promote freedom and/or conditions people to accept tyranny. There will be spoilers, so you'll want to read it ahead of time.

You can purchase a copy of Turtledove's latest alternative historical fiction about a man who refuses to give lies a helping hand through my Blazing Book Shop.

John C.A. Manley

P.S. Part two of my review of Powerless will be coming out on Wednesday. Subscribe so you don't miss out.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.