The Million
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4.5 • 10 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Futurist and award-winning author Karl Schroeder imagines infiltrating the elite of a marginal society in The Million.
Every thirty years, ten billion visitors overrun Earth during one month of madness: partying, polluting, and brawling. In between, the world is ruled by the Million; the inheritors and custodians of all of humanity’s wealth and history, they lead unimaginable lives of privilege and wealth, and they see it as their due.
Gavin Penn-of-Chaffee is an illegal child—a visitor hidden among the Million. When the family that raised him in secret is torn apart, Gavin must impersonate a dead boy to survive. What he doesn’t know is that his new identity is expected at the School of Auditors—the Million’s feared police force, sworn to find and capture outcasts like him to keep the peace. In order to solve the murder of his adoptive father, Gavin must keep his disguise and his wits intact within the stronghold of those threatened by his very existence.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the far-flung future, Earth is primarily inhabited by one million people who dwell in luxury, entertaining themselves with fantastic technology and boundless resources, while keeping the planet ready for the 10 billion who sleep the centuries away in suspended animation, only emerging every 30 years for a monthlong party. One of the waking inhabitants, 16-year-old Gavin Penn-of-Chaffee, is secretly a "visitor," not one of the recorded million, hiding in plain sight as one of the elite. When his adoptive father is killed and his brother blamed, Gavin has to steal a new identity, subsequently finding refuge in the School of Auditors, where he must train to hunt down illegal residents like himself. However, in protecting his secrets while investigating his father's murder, he and his new friends seem poised to discover a terrible, centuries-old mystery relating to the very nature of their society. The premise for this thriller, loosely related to 2014's Lockstep, sounds complicated, but Schroeder makes the mixture of elements work. Intriguing world building, fast pacing, and hints of much more to come will keep the reader's attention, but the novella's relative brevity and inconclusive ending give the impression this is merely the start of a longer, more substantial story.
