Deathwish World

By: Mack Reynolds, Dean Ing

Narrated by: Jem Matzan

On a future Earth wracked by strife and shortages, Roy Cos buys into a lifetime of ease through the Deathwish Policy, but his privileged status makes him a target for killers hired by the elite Worldgov.

©1986 The Literary Estate of Mack Reynolds (P)2016 Wildside Press, LLC

thought provoking, futuristic, satirical...

In the year 2086, automation has made the production of food and basic needs so inexpensive, poverty is all but eliminated. Only about 5% of the population needs to work to supply the needs of the rest. The problem is, there aren’t any more jobs for the others. To keep everyone happy(ish), 89% of the industrialized world is on global assistance, or welfare. They have their basic needs easily met, clothes, food, housing, entertainment, and cheap booze, but not much more. The final 1% of the population are so rich they live in extreme luxury and leisure, bored, jaded and racist. They spend their time thinking up ways to smooth out what few obstacles remain to their permanent and absolute control of the world.

A global government is in sight as countries merge. The United States has invited its geographic neighbors to join them: Canada, Mexico, and many countries in South and Central America into a new larger country, now called, United States of the Americas. It works pretty well, except many of the new countries are not so white, and that doesn’t sit well with the all-white ruling class.

Death wish, in the title of the book, refers to an illegal insurance policy on someone’s life. A person (sick of life) agrees to a life insurance policy drawn against him by a foreign agent in exchange for the ability to spend up to one million dollars per day. The goal is to stay alive long enough to enjoy the money while simultaneously avoiding the many assassins hired to end the policy quickly. It is a lottery of extreme wealth measured in days or hours.

It is important to note that Deathwish World was written in 1986. The future described is 100 years in its own future. There are a lot of important societal ideas explored in the book: racism, mass unemployment, crony capitalism, socialism, anarchism, globalism, and wealth inequality. All of this is wrapped up in a satirical Batman/Bruce Wayne kind of vigilantism theme. It is difficult to describe the many sub plots and intrigue without spoiling the plot. Deathwish World is fun, action based, highly entertaining and insightful in unusual ways. The high-tech gadgets thought up in 1986 may sound a little off, but the story does not feel dated, quite the opposite, it seem ev