Imagine a secret, hidden city that gives a second chance at life for those selected to come: felons, deformed outcasts, those on the fringe of the Outside World. Everyone gets a job, a place to live; but you are bound to the city forever. You can never leave.
Its citizens are ruled by a monstrous figure called the "Man" who resembles a giant demented spider from the lifelike robotic limbs attached to his body. Everyone follows the man blindly, working hard to make their Promised Land stronger, too scared to defy him and be discarded to the Empty Zones.
After ten years as an advertising executive, Graham Weatherend receives an order to test a new client, Pow! Sodas. After one sip of the orange flavor, he becomes addicted, the sodas causing wild mood swings that finally wake him up to the prison he calls reality.
A dynamic mash-up of 1984 meets LOST, ORANGE CITY is a lurid, dystopian first book in a series that will continue with the explosive sequel LEMONWORLD.
Imagine a secret, hidden city that gives a second chance at life for those selected to come: felons, deformed outcasts, those on the fringe of the Outside World. Everyone gets a job, a place to live; but you are bound to the city forever. You can never leave.
Its citizens are ruled by a monstrous figure called the "Man" who resembles a giant demented spider from the lifelike robotic limbs attached to his body. Everyone follows the man blindly, working hard to make their Promised Land stronger, too scared to defy him and be discarded to the Empty Zones.
After ten years as an advertising executive, Graham Weatherend receives an order to test a new client, Pow! Sodas. After one sip of the orange flavor, he becomes addicted, the sodas causing wild mood swings that finally wake him up to the prison he calls reality.
A dynamic mash-up of 1984 meets LOST, ORANGE CITY is a lurid, dystopian first book in a series that will continue with the explosive sequel LEMONWORLD.
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At six on the dot, the gloved cellular let out a piercing ring. A timer turned on, ticking down with each buzz. E wouldnât have long to remain idle. The entire pod apartment vibrated, and his capsule bed slid open. The white ceiling drew his attention, the walls devoid of color, a minimalistâs fantasyânothing like a home.Â
Shades of the dream from last night still lingered. His knuckles painted with blood as he beat a shadow. The voice of the shadow belonging to a ten-year-old boy. The boyâs cries stabbing Eâs ears. He shook that dream away.Â
He removed the intravenous tube that connected him to his bed and switched off the cooling mist which allowed him to slumber for days. He stretched his old bones, his hair standing up in a state of white shock like it had since he was a young man. Swinging his thick legs over the side of the bed, he yawned at the morning before finally answering his cell.Â
âIâll be right there,â he coughed into the digital eye on his gloved palm.Â
He removed the glove and pushed a button on the side of the bed. Doors opening along the wall revealed a sliver of a kitchen with a piping pot of subpar and gritty coffee brewing on the counterâ the best offered to the Scoutsâ and two sizzling poached eggs from a suspect source. He scarfed down the eggs and pushed another button to raise the shades along the lone wall facing east. The heart of The City hovered in the near distance, its new buildings staggering on one end like giant colorful stalagmites. Sipping his black coffee, he watched it in motion as he did every morning.Â
Between the Scouts and the rest of The City lay a half a mile of ice water. The City was made up of many Regions, his situated on the outskirts. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to fall into those frosty waters and drift off to wherever it might choose to take him, no longer having to shuttle between The City and the faraway Outside World anymore. But instead of a dramatic suicide, he suited up and headed through the tunnel with a suitcase in hand like he had for twenty years. Heâd convinced himself long ago that living here was better than rotting in prison like he wouldâve been if they hadnât selected him. At least he was still able to get lost in a bottle of whiskey or feel the sun against his cheek during the few instances it was allowed to peek through the chronic clouds. Even though The City was far from ideal, the Outside World remained definitely worse. It reminded him too often of the man he used to be and of the terrible sins heâd committed. These thoughts returned at the beginning of every week while he geared up for another one, as he wondered if one day the Man in the Eye might give him a promotion and he wouldnât have to be a Scout anymore.Â
That way, heâd never have to return to the Outside World.Â
Then, he could possibly be at peace, like all The Cityâs inhabitants wished.Â
The world and concept that Lee Matthew Goldberg has put together in Orange City is all that can be hoped for from dystopian fiction. It is dreary, gritty and real, as though this dystopian world is somewhere in our future. It is believable - an important feature for a genre that should garner deeper thought, and this story does this with issues around addiction, freedom, love and morality.
Vividness is what springs to mind when reading, particularly with the nightlife within the city in which the story is set. The colours promote dynamism in the imagination, submerging it to the point where you can hear the booming base of a downtown bar or club. This colourisation that weaves through the story is only pronounced further by the emotion invoked in the protagonist by the Pow! drinks that are so focal to the story. Emotion and story told through colour directs you as a reader, and it is very well done.
Our hero has to navigate this vivid world, and it is a turbulent experience. Above all, what sticks with you as a reader is that he rises to the challenge as the underdog which is always an enjoyable experience. His experiences point out the troubles of such a dystopian future if they became reality, and it develops an appreciation for the world we have now where we are free to love and express. This being said, our underdog character can sometimes fall flat in key moments in the story.
At times, dialogue doesnât convey the complexity of emotion and motive, making key moments seem forced or not built out sufficiently. The final encounter with The Man was a prime example of this, with it playing out as an anti-climax due to directive and obvious dialogue. The âvillainsâ stature in the story deserved more, and would have done justice to the brilliant and vivid world he was a part of. A bit more of this coloured emotion, action or distress could have been pried from these key moments.
This world is what should be the main focus, however, and it is a huge success. This will be what stays with me when I think back to the Orange City and rightfully so. This book adds to the dystopian genre with its colourful grittiness, and for that it should be appreciated.Â