What happens to the once most powerful nation in the world when it loses its values? When democracy is replaced by ideology? When freedom is redefined under the constraints of a controlling and centralized government? When the metrics for a good citizen are based on conformity and being politically correct? “2064 A Warning”, depicts a counter-pastoral picture of the “American dream” as it devolves over the next few decades – a story that reminds us of that timeless message in Orwell’s “1984” and Huxley’s “Brave New World”. In this quick and easy read, the author takes us to a gray and dismal time, 2064, when America has been reduced to a quasi penal-colony, where wrong is right, where being a good citizen means that one is a quiet and acquiescent citizen, where people who dissent or do not toe the line suddenly disappear, where houses stand vacant and neighborhoods once bright with families and life, are mere tombstones - reminders of a great civilization that once existed. The story revolves around Robert and Celia, living alone, who soon come together in marriage and discover that they have the same values and the same questions about the society they live in, and together they begin a dangerous journey to find the truth and to pull back the curtain. Although dystopian in nature, one can hardly discard the brutal reality that given the wrong turn of events, the nation that was once a beacon for freedom and democracy in the world, could become a mere shadow of the icon it once represented. We recommend this book, not only for its entertainment value, but also because it paints the picture and it poses the questions which people should be asking - because if Rome and so many great empires in the past also faded into oblivion, why not America?
Review by International Writers Inspiring Change
About Russell Warnberg
IWIC: Tell us about yourself.Russell: I grew up in Minnesota and at the age of eighteen I shipped out with the Navy. They sent me to an Anti-Submarine Squadron based in Maine. While there I met a young lady, who later was foolish enough to accept my proposal of marriage. We then moved back to Minnesota where I attended the University of Minnesota and after three years we moved back to Maine where I finished my two degrees at the University of Maine. I spent the next forty-one years teaching in both public and private schools. We have one son who went to the Naval Academy and served in the Persian Gulf. After his discharge he was married and has given us two wonderful grandchildren.
IWIC: What inspired you to start writing?Russell: I first became interested in writing while taking a creative writing class at the University of Minnesota and several years later I wrote a short novel that I was unable to get published. It wasn’t until my last year of teaching that I decided it was time to try again. It was at this point that I was given a laptop. Brushing up on my typing skills I wrote a short piece that ended up being the first page of what later became the first novel in The Detective Cole Sullivan series. I am now working on the fifth in that series. After finishing the third mystery novel, I needed to write something entirely different. “2064 A Warning“, is the result of that change in direction.
IWIC: Tell us about your book.Russell: “2064 A Warning“, is a dystopia. This genre is not generally uplifting, but rather a dark look into the future. Woven into the novel is a love story that some readers have found to be the best part of the story while others found my look into the future intriguing. Many have said it was a real page turner and hard to put down.
IWIC: Is there a message weaved into your writing – some inspiration?Russell: Having taught history for forty-one years and while watching the direction the United States is taking, I decided it was time to spell out where I believe we are headed. Throughout time, many great empires, those based on some form of democracy, have come and gone. Most have followed a similar pattern. The central theme of my novel is showing how many of these great empires have fallen. Alexander Tyler, a Scottish historian wrote in the late 1800’s, “A democracy is always temporary in nature, it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.” The details of his argument is spelled out in the story. Having read Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Orwell’s “1984“, I felt it was necessary to update their visions of the future.
