Doug Engstrom

A solid, thought-provoking alternate-near-future novel where impossibly-high student loan or medical debts are settled by duels, with professional gunfighters on the payroll of insurance companies up against ordinary citizens whose lives have come down to a hard choice between indentured servitude (slavery) or the bad odds of a gunfight. Lots of meaty discussion, reflection, and commentary on the idea of personal responsibility, corporate greed, societal mores, and individual powerlessness. It's a brutal, ugly dystopia envisioned here, but a compelling read.… (más)