A research scientist in this novel goes to prison for
burning down her own lab, in which she has perfected the science of inflicting
pain.
Apparently her work survives,
however, as an instrument of torture known as the Influencer.
It is used on anyone who doesn’t toe the
line—civilian protesters and incarcerated criminals alike—in the not too
distant future.
The real story here,
though, is that the spectacle of gladiators has made a comeback.
Prisoners fight one another to the death as a
spectator sport, and their lives are chronicled on reality TV.
Two women, Hurricane Staxxx and Loretta
Thurwar, are the stars of these battles, and they also happen to be
lovers.
Their adoring fans are either
Team Staxxx or Team Thurwar, but some pushback against this violence does
exist, especially when a sports TV anchor walks off the set in protest.
The only upside for these prisoners is that
they will be exonerated and set free if they can survive three years on the
circuit, and Thurwar is on the cusp of her three-year mark.
The problem with this book is that I never
warmed to any of these characters.
As a
reader I felt almost like one of the TV viewers of these characters’ lives in
that I saw them but didn’t really get to know them.
I’m not usually a fan of footnotes, but I did
find the ones in this book revealing, as the author cites real legal references
that often either support or refute the notion of prisoners killing each other.
The author doesn’t make clear whether this
practice was introduced as a deterrent to violent crime and then evolved into
entertainment or whether the viewing pleasure aspect was its intention all
along.
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