Pump Up Your Book – Orange City

Title: ORANGE CITY
Author: Lee Matthew Goldberg
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Pages: 259
Genre: Sci-fi / Dystopian

BOOK BLURB:

Imagine a secret, hidden City that gives a second chance at life for those
selected to come: felons, deformed outcasts, those on the fringe of the Outside
World. Everyone gets a job, a place to live; but you are bound to the City
forever. You can never leave. 

Its citizens are ruled by a monstrous figure called the “Man” who
resembles a giant demented spider from the lifelike robotic limbs attached to
his body. Everyone follows the Man blindly, working hard to make their Promised
Land stronger, too scared to defy him and be discarded to the Empty
Zones. 

After ten years as an advertising executive, Graham Weatherend receives an
order to test a new client, Pow Sodas. After one sip of the orange flavor, he
becomes addicted, the sodas causing wild mood swings that finally wake him up
to the prison he calls reality.

A dynamic mash-up of 1984 meets LOST, Orange City is a lurid, dystopian
first book in a series that will continue with the explosive sequel Lemonworld.

“In his compelling novel,
ORANGE CITY, novelist LEE MATTHEW GOLDBERG, has crafted a unique dystopian
thriller that manages to reveal our greatest fears about emerging technology
and our anxieties at what the future holds.” – Raymond A. Villareal, Author of
A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising.

“Lee Matthew Goldberg’s brutal,
fast-paced thriller is a compelling reminder of how our society is always a few
small steps away from a dystopia.” — Robert Repino, Author of
Mort(e) and the “War with No Name” series.

“An ambitious dystopian
series debut, this hair-raising science fiction novel is perfect for fans of
layered conspiracies, altered realities, and eerie dystopias.”– Publishers
Weekly, BookLife.

“Imagine Man in the High
Tower (with a Stalin slant) mixed with Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and Max Barry’s
Syrup. That’s pretty much what Mr. Goldberg deftly delivers in Orange
City.” — 23rd Legion 

 

 

 

At six on the dot, the gloved
cellular let out a piercing ring. A timer turned on, ticking down with each
buzz. E wouldn’t have long to remain idle. The entire pod apartment vibrated,
and his capsule bed slid open. The white ceiling drew his attention, the walls
devoid of color, a minimalist’s fantasy—nothing like a home.

Shades of the dream from last
night still lingered. His knuckles painted with blood as he beat a shadow. The
voice of the shadow belonging to a ten-year-old boy. The boy’s cries stabbing
E’s ears. He shook that dream away.

He removed the intravenous
tube that connected him to his bed and switched off the cooling mist which
allowed him to slumber for days. He stretched his old bones, his hair standing
up in a state of white shock like it had since he was a young man. Swinging his
thick legs over the side of the bed, he yawned at the morning before finally
answering his cell.

“I’ll be right there,” he
coughed into the digital eye on his gloved palm.

He removed the glove and
pushed a button on the side of the bed. Doors opening along the wall revealed a
sliver of a kitchen with a piping pot of subpar and gritty coffee brewing on
the counter— the best offered to the Scouts— and two sizzling poached eggs from
a suspect source. He scarfed down the eggs and pushed another button to raise
the shades along the lone wall facing east. The heart of The City hovered in
the near distance, its new buildings staggering on one end like giant colorful
stalagmites. Sipping his black coffee, he watched it in motion as he did every
morning.

Between the Scouts and the
rest of The City lay a half a mile of ice water. The City was made up of many
Regions, his situated on the outskirts. Sometimes he wondered what it would be
like to fall into those frosty waters and drift off to wherever it might choose
to take him, no longer having to shuttle between The City and the faraway
Outside World anymore. But instead of a dramatic suicide, he suited up and
headed through the tunnel with a suitcase in hand like he had for twenty years.
He’d convinced himself long ago that living here was better than rotting in prison
like he would’ve been if they hadn’t selected him. At least he was still able
to get lost in a bottle of whiskey or feel the sun against his cheek during the
few instances it was allowed to peek through the chronic clouds. Even though
The City was far from ideal, the Outside World remained definitely worse. It
reminded him too often of the man he used to be and of the terrible sins he’d
committed. These thoughts returned at the beginning of every week while he
geared up for another one, as he wondered if one day the Man in the Eye might
give him a promotion and he wouldn’t have to be a Scout anymore.

That way, he’d never have to
return to the Outside World.

Then, he could possibly be at
peace, like all The City’s inhabitants wished.

 

 

Amazon → https://amzn.to/2MX29i8  

BookShop.org → https://bit.ly/36MnAcI   

 

 

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