Seventeen Blog Tour - Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

Hi everyone! I have a stop on the Seventeen Blog Tour today. There is a review of the book, an excerpt and a giveaway.

SEVENTEEN

By

Mark Diehl

BLURB: 

Most of the world's seventeen billion people are unconscious, perpetually serving their employers as part of massive brain trusts. The ecosystem has collapsed, and corporations control all of the world's resources and governments. A bedraggled alcoholic known as the Prophet predicts nineteen year-old waitress Eadie will lead a revolution, but how can she prevail when hunted by a giant corporation and the Federal Angels it directs?

My Review

This book is a different type of dystopian book. I really enjoyed reading about this possible future. There is a couple different groups. The Elite who pretty much run things, the people in the brain trust and people who are what you might say free. You would think the Elite ones would have it made but that is not the case. Each one has a person above them it seems and they can be reprogrammed at any time. The brain trust are really shells of people who are hooked up to machines keeping things going. The ones who are free have to watch their steps with those that are Elite, they steal, fight and some are on street drugs. Everyone seems unhappy and believe the saying the grass is greener on the other side. A change seems to be coming.

The author does a good job descibing the world you are in now. You really get a feel for what has happened and how things are run. This is book hops around some and at first I was confused but then I got the hang of it. There is several what you would call main characters to get to know. Eadie seems like a normal waitress. She tries to stay out of the way and live her life. When an old man is attacked she can't help but get involved. Some Elite's try to kill him and she ends up fighting for his life. The old man a prophet says she is a general. I liked how when everyone else turned their back she was willing to jump in. She isn't the only one to do so and a motley crew of characters seem to find their way into a group. That group seems to start the change the world needs. There isn't no love matches or such in this book. It is more an  action book. The ending left many things open and you want the next one as it seems even with all that happens in this book there is more to come.

3 out of 5 Stars

Excerpt

“I know what you did, Sett. There is a Federal Angel with me right now. He wants to talk to you.  He would like to know why you helped some waitress escape after she killed Matt Ricker. Switch to visual. Now.”

He blinked hard and wiped a palm across his forehead. A sickly gray light seemed smeared along the opposite wall, having filtered through the filthy window at the end of the hallway. The floorboards creaked as he shifted his weight.

“Is it true, Sett?” his mother asked. “Why would you get yourself involved in a debacle like that? Why? When everything was going so well for you?”

He stared down at the stained plywood floor, now spotted with teardrops.

“What were you thinking? A waitress? You know better than to go getting messed up with people like that. They’ll drag you right down with them, every time. You come home right now and explain to this Angel exactly what happened; I’m sure he’ll understand. But I’m not going to lie to you. There will still be fallout. Society does not tolerate wretched, uncivilized behavior. I can’t guarantee you’ll be allowed to remain at Fisher.”

“I wasn’t thinking at all, Mother. I was just doing it, all of a sudden.” He sniffed. “She was hurt, and they started it, not her. Nobody else would help. What was I supposed to do? Just let her die?”

“Oh, Sett.” His mother sighed. “Of course you were.”

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Mark D. Diehl writes novels about power dynamics and the way people and organizations influence each other. He believes that obedience and conformity are becoming humanity’s most important survival skills, and that we are thus evolving into a corporate species. 

Diehl has: been homeless in Japan, practiced law with a major multinational firm in Chicago, studied in Singapore, fled South Korea as a fugitive, and been stranded in Hong Kong. 

After spending most of his youth running around with hoods and thugs, he eventually earned his doctorate in law at the University of Iowa and did graduate work in creative writing at the University of Chicago. He currently lives and writes in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Author’s Website: http://www.markddiehl.com

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/09/virtual-tour-seventeen-by-mark-d-diehl.html