The United States counters by defaulting on its loans and printing money to cover its bills.
It’s 2029, and it’s been five years since multiple nations carried out a cyber attack on the United States in an effort to derail the economy. The attack is now called “the Stonage,” and it forced the United States to take all their economic transactions offline.
Now, the president is saying that the United States is under attack again, as the international community wants to sink the dollar and replace it with a new global currency called the bancor. The United States counters by defaulting on its loans and printing money to cover its bills. Inflation goes through the roof and the United States becomes one of those countries where you have to take a wheelbarrow full of money to the grocery store just to buy a loaf of bread.
In this world lives the Mandible family, who were all counting on a huge inheritance from the 97-year-old patriarch of the family, Douglas.
And overnight, that inheritance vanishes.
Douglas is kicked out of his retirement home and moves in with his son Carter, who used to be a journalist when there were still newspapers. Then there is Avery, who just wants things to go back to normal so she can buy olive oil. When she and her husband Lowell lose their house, they gather up their three kids and go to her sister Florence’s house.
Because Florence works with the homeless, she’s the only sibling with a stable job. Business is booming, so to speak.
And even she can’t save the family.
But maybe her teenage son Willing can. Having grown up during the Stonage, he developed a pessimistic view of the world and actually learned how the economy works.
And as badly as the rest of the family is coping, Willing is probably the only person that can keep the whole family from living on the streets.
And he can only see one way to make that happen. Get back into the device and find his universe.
What to Watch for in December
KILL THE NEXT ONE
By Federico Axat
Having found out he has a terminal brain tumor, Ted wants to kill himself, but doesn’t want his family to have to deal with his suicide. Then, a stranger makes him an offer. Kill two other people, one a criminal and another who is also terminally ill, and then someone else will kill him the same way. Sounds great, but I bet everything starts to unravel at some point.
THE PRINCESS DIARIST
By Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher is not just Princess Leia, she’s also a really funny writer, as she proved in her book Wishful Drinking, which you should also check out. In this book, she looks back at journals that she kept during the filming of Star Wars. I wonder if she talks about when she found out her character had kissed her brother.
