Alex Shishin

Nippon 2357: A Utopian Ecological Tale
This was not the easiest book to get behind and cheer. It was start and stop, start and stop. When it clicked however, holy shit did it click.

Nippon 2357 follows Thomas Redburn. Tom is an American expatriate, Japanese citizen, married man, photographer, bicyclist drunkard who is riding in the pitch black of the Japanese countryside totally sloshed. After wrecking his bike in a ditch, he finds himself aboard a vessel manned by several bizarre individuals, each with a modgepodge name (example, Kropotikin Tsuda, aka Kro-chan). The craft is named Doug, and Doug is a Time Machine, Doug is flying through time space to 24th century Japan. Tom was historically found as ready to die, and minimally impacting on history, so they grabbed him and brought him to the future, an ambassador from the past. Drunken Redburn begins the long and confusing journey to sobriety and grief over his now dead and long buried family.

Do we have your attention? Because we are past the part I was stuck during..

24th century Earth has been destroyed by Ecological, Pathogen, and Wartime folly, bringing everything to an utter standstill. Humanity is driven to a logical survival methodology, presented and maintained for several generations. True, unforced, unrewarded Socialism. No big brother watching over, dictating or leading. Just people working for happiness and survival.

Redburn spends more than half of the book waiting for the other shoe to drop, watching for the wizard behind the curtain to pop out and say boo. Instead of a wizard he finds a world populated with bizarre collectives, new customs, and strangers who feel genuine and amazing.

The trouble reading this book was getting used to the language used by the future rooted characters. They speak of We and Us and Society in manners that are unusual to us readers, as we are in a world where socialism is just waiting to be shown as a shameful greed factory for a handful of people. Once used to the language however, this novel is a treasure trove of social theory. Some areas can feel repetitive as similar theory are discussed, but none so much that you choose to give up reading.

There is a subtle character arc that is followed as Thomas Redburn pushes back the deep ingrained cynicism of modern life and embraces the future that he feared but comes to champion.

This is not a medium for Socialist recruitment, but more a vehicle for bitchslapping people into ecological and political wakefulness. In reading this, each chapter closer to the end left me feeling a little high, giddy for the experience Redburn is enjoying. I was found to be smiling and excited for him, and frankly, a bit more angry and jealous at the world i live in for not being open to community.

Good book for everyone? No. Absolutely not.Good book for thinkers and dreamers? Yes. Absolutely.

Oh yeah, and it is free for e-readers. Sooooo yeah, no excuses.

This is a self published novel and there are a handful of typographical editing errors, overall one of the cleanest, most well put together self pubs I have read in ages. Excellent work, and kudos to the author.

Get this book for free on smashwords.

Also free on itunes and B&N, among other retailers.… (plus d'informations)