Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

Half of this book is teen issues. Glory is a mature 17 year old, whose mother committed suicide. She has just graduated from high school. Her best friend lives across the street in a commune, and occasionally needs help buying chemical products and processed foods. Glory describes this friend as selfish and needy, but this doesn't really come out in her actions. Unfortunately, this half of the story starts off very rough, though it does improve somewhat towards the end. Call it 3 stars.

The other half of the book is the strange future that Glory sees after ingesting the dust of a mummified bat mixed in her beer. These visions reveal an anti-feminist future, where "moronic dipshits" have somehow voted women out of the workplace in response to an "equal pay for women" law. This leads to a civil war, women enslaved as breed stock, and so on. Perhaps this is more believable for a Pennsylvania born author than for me here in the liberal west. Then again, with recent laws in Indiana discriminating against a much smaller percentage of the population, maybe it isn't so far-fetched.

There were other parts to the future vision not explored in depth - the far future, with a human race in the trillions spread across the galaxy. I also want to mention the fact that Glory receives confirmation of her visions within the story. Or in other words, the death of free will. In summary, I found the "future" portion poorly considered, and it rates a 1 star as science fiction. Perhaps the "future" is more feminist discussion than actual science fiction, which brings it up a hair.

Will I check out another A.S.King book? Sure - her favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut, and that's recommendation enough for me. Overall rating for Glory O'Brien's History of the Future - 2 stars.