Orwell in Orbit 2084 is a new edition of a 2008 dystopian novel that was eerily prophetic about how conditions in the USA and the world would be in 2084, but a lot of it seems to be coming true already at the dawn of (classic dystopian) Blade Runner Year 2019. The author in 2008 predicted the following:
1) An Amerika run by a ruthless and amoral tyrant called the Great Shepherd
2) An Amerika surrounded by a high wall called the Magnum Line
3) A chapter titled "Take Down This Wall" that mocks Reagan's Berlin Wall quote
4) And (are you ready?) a sinister cat prowling in high places named *Donald*
DEA Special Agent Joe 'Mack' Mackinson's nightmare adventure starts on a lone stakeout one nigh, in the desert outside San Diego. He hopes to snare a Baja drug lord. Instead, he stumbles onto a battle between rival UFO gangs from the distant future. He is kidnapped, and drafted into service on a perilous mission in 2084 Amerika. Time travelers from far uptime are constantly working to undo the damage from a vast and deadly Time War eons from now that has left Earth and its great City of En metropolis at the edge of extinction. By carefully, gently tweaking myriad small events in the past, agents from the future hope to save their world by hours and minutes at a clip as Earth slips into the deadly embrace of the Cosmopause at the edge of time.
Mack's mission is to escort a dissident senator and his family out of the Great Shepherd's nightmare Amerika, across the deadly Magnum Line (or National Defense Barrier), and into the free world beyond (Canada, Europe, everywhere except a nation trapped in its own exceptionalism myth).
The Magnum Line is manned by two million terrified, jumpy troops ready to shoot at any phantom that may invade their prison nation at any moment. But that wall of paranoia, like the Berlin Wall during the Cold War, is not about keeping enemies out. It's about keeping the truth out, and the serfs on the inside ignorant of how cruel and tragic their lives in a totalitarian state have become, founded on fake noise from Big Brother about everything: economics, religion, science, politics. No trace of U.S. democracy remains - only an Orwellian Big Brother media circus that rewrites history every morning news program to suit the ruling korporate oligarchy's latest lies of the day.
It's a rich dystopia in the best traditions of SF's literature of ideas, filled with action and thrills, as well as the sentimental love story of Mack and his beautiful young wife Carly - who may be the next victim of time travel and slaughter that knows no boundaries. Can Mack save Carly, get the senator and his family of out dangerous new Medieval Amerika, and help save the far future City of En? Mack will have plenty of help (or hate) from rival future time travel agents who talk rough and play for keeps.
