The Culture: Geek Gab Drives Offensively!

Geek Gab hosted Jay Barnson, author of DEAD TO RIGHTS, on Monday of this week. After the movie and TV reviews, we get to the meat of the show.

This is a Car Wars novel, the latest in a series. It's been years since I'd seen anyone publish any fiction related to Car Wars, so I am curious about how good these are.

Given Amazon's recent policy fuckery on Kindle, I am suggesting Paperback if you buy from Amazon.

While Jay's got other things to offer--see his site page--the Car Wars series is one I want to focus upon. There's not a lot of stories with this premise, be it set in the (now retro-)future of Car Wars (we are closer to this than it seems) or something (legally or more) distinct therefrom, these days and there wasn't a whole lot back in the day either; if you found it, you likely found all of it.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing--more technologically sophisticated then Mad Max (which is a fantastic game in its own right), but still in the general vibe--is rare in general in entertainment. Games Workshop, back in the day, had Dark Future and that was about it. (Yes, Thunder Road is a thing; it's Mad Max with the branding filed off, and that's not Car Wars.)

This dystopia is a cyberpunk dystopia before Tabletop had that term, albeit lacking on the cyberware and chrome. You've got megacorporations, hypercapitalism, weak governments, ultratech gatekept by stupid high price tags (and the transhumanist horror it provides, like Boomers Never Dying Off). All you need to do is ensure that Dudes In Cars With Guns solve the problems and you're cooking with gas. Make it happen.