I’m not typically a reader of Science Fiction but this one caught my attention.  I just finished reading J. Zornado’s novel, 2050: Gods of Little Earth. I read the e-book on Speculative Fiction Review. I have to tell you, I was very impressed.  I would say it’s a cross between The Matrix and 1984.  The story of 2050: Gods of Little Earth is an old one-- about jealousy, vengeance, desire for power and control-- but it's told in a new way.  It's set in a time and place that is different from ours, yet it's frighteningly discernable as the possible legacy of the materialistic, competition-driven, self-destructive culture we live in. 

Zornado has created a world inhabited by all-too-human characters, who might remind us of ourselves. I think that’s why it was so hard to stop reading. The possibility of this new world seems so realistic that it makes me wonder if years from now we’ll reflect on Zornado’s prophetic vision the way we discuss Orwell’s.  The novel conveys a cautionary message, but it is never preachy or heavy-handed.  The prose is crisp, and the pace is just quick enough to keep in time with this reader’s desire to find out what happens next. The main character, Vilb, looks back to the past to try to make sense of the world.  He searches to find how things came to be.  He wonders if things were always the way they are now. In the process, he finds out truths about himself. The author masterfully shifts the narrative from past to present, offering a rich and realistic rendering of various characters, along with their histories and back-stories, in the novel.