The State

By: Tom Wright

Narrated by: Hollie Jackson

The State is the complete collection of all three books in the trilogy of action-packed, sci-fi, dystopian novellas.

The resistance fights the state on every hand, trying to gain a foothold against their military might.

Kara, a young soldier, reunites with Matt, her childhood friend. For several years, he's been indoctrinated by the state. Kara must work to turn him back, while fighting to stop the force that captured him so long ago.

Orem, the leader of the resistance, seeks to atone for his past by saving the future. But the more he tries to avoid violence, the more deaths pile up. He and Kara race against time to bring peace to the warring factions before it's too late.

©2015 Moonlight Crew Publishing (P)2016 Moonlight Crew Publishing

Excellent read

Where does The State rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Fairly high just because I enjoy this post-apocalyptic genre, and that I was able to read the book before it was an audiobook. The narrator did a good job with accents. I appreciated it.

Which scene was your favorite?

Any and all references to how Austin is like today, and how it turned out in that future, was fun to read.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The book hooks you from the first chapter. I don't want to give spoilers, but I was just surprised that this is how the book began.

Fast-Paced Action, Lacking in Depth

This is a fast-paced novel, with a great performance by the narrator. However, I found that the characters had murky motives. While I like the idea of two opposed warlords secretly and respecting each other's ideologies, their reasoning never convinced me. Just about every major character in this novel switches sides at the drop of a hat. They might as well be playing paintball instead of fighting for moral reasons. None of them seem to think deeply at all about why they're fighting, or why they believe what they believe. As a result, they're not compelling to read about.

The whole enslavement of humanity was never explained. How does La Pax work? People make millions of choices every day. If the drones are going to wipe themselves after using a toilet, or avoid slamming into walls while they walk, then they'd need to be individually micromanaged throughout the day. I can't see how removing free will would result in functioning drones.

Even if La Pax somehow works the way it's shown, I don't believe that a majority of otherwise nice people would flippantly agree that enslaving humankind is the best solution to generalized violence (especially since it didn't actually solve violence). There's a reason why slavery is currently outlawed in every nation on Earth. So this premise felt half-baked to me; not believable and not thoroughly explored. I can't respect a character who believes that slavery is great, as long as he's not the slave.

There's some tight writing here, and nice dramatic irony. I love how the solution to one of our major global problems (the energy crisis) has unintended consequences that these characters are dealing with. This is an author with promise.

Gripping action filled story

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book. It was compelling from the beginning and had a really good pace to it. I really enjoyed the setting, being from Texas. While I would have liked a little more depth to the characters, I wasn't at all disappointed. I found the choices that the characters were faced with very interesting and everything wrapped up pretty well for me. Overall a solid read.

The State: Read It!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The narrator was amazing and did a fantastic job. The story was interesting and exciting, lots of action and twists and turns. Being an Austinite, it was really fun to read about a dystopian Austin. There was actually one time I was listening to it, and they mentioned an intersection, and I was just a couple blocks away from it. I almost looked around for the characters. Definitely worth the read or the listen!

Excellent story and performance

One of the aspects of The State that I enjoyed the most was the focus on the morality of actions taken during times of war, rather than just the action sequences themselves. While action is certainly present, time is taken on character development to flush out both personal beliefs of each faction, and personal connections.

I can honestly say there wasn't a moment during The State where I felt things moved too slowly, or were out of place. I was engaged from the first moment to hear more about the situation of the world, the cause of the disaster, and how the people and environment will unfold.

As much as I enjoyed it, I do have a minor personal gripe. When characters are talking and make an allusion between their current situation and what they've read in a book, I would prefer it if the characters would describe the similarities without specifically naming real prominent sci-fi novels. while sure this is a dystopian version of Texas, naming real life books just seems unnecessary, and not everyone has read all the classics.