The future predicted in a dystopian novel is unfolding before our eyes. Although The Network Apostate begins with the U.S. national elections in 2028, some key developments in the book are well underway in 2025: a billionaire takes over the executive branch, alternative power sources are consolidated under the executive branch, and AI is used to create a monopoly on information.
WASHINGTON, March 13, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The future predicted in a dystopian novel is unfolding before our eyes. Although The Network Apostate begins with the U.S. national elections in 2028, some key developments in the book are well underway in 2025.
In the novel, a billionaire takes over the government and ushers in a tech oligarchy. "I envisioned a charismatic tech owner running in 2028 as an alternative to the chaos and polarization of the two-party system," said author TJ Relk. "I didn't imagine such a person would receive broad executive powers as part of the incoming administration."
Written in 2023 and revised in early 2024, Relk designed the story to work regardless of the 2024 election result. "I believed both parties would continue ramping up polarization no matter who won, causing a backlash that would open the door to an independent candidate with easy answers, no party baggage, and no political record to scrutinize."
Readers identified other creeping parallels, such as the rise of online media silos that insulate the public from competing political narratives and truth itself: "Our people have changed. We have become used to being lied to. A constant barrage of Goliath Network infotainment and trivialities gradually discredited truth as an antiquated and relative construct."
The book's President Wolfe demonizes unspecified "internal enemies" as a pretext to delegitimize and assimilate alternative power centers in Congress, the courts, and the media under his AI, the Goliath Network. The protagonist, Jane, initially fails to defend those institutions or their workers in solidarity with a wartime president and, later, out of fear of persecution as an "enemy of the people."
As Jane describes it in the book, "If we didn't commit ourselves fully to his vision, we would never rid ourselves of the enemy within, hiding in plain sight—one that was far more dangerous than any external threat."
But not all current political trends overlap neatly with the book. For example, a forever war and global conspiracy are key themes in The Network Apostate. The Trump Administration has been vocal about avoiding wars and backing away from international engagements and approaches. Those plot elements may have to wait for 2028 or, hopefully, remain fictional forever.
The Network Apostate is available as an . It is the prequel to the Sins of the Saviors series, which is scheduled for release in May. Those books are 30 years in the making, based on the author's experience as a soldier during the First Gulf War, when existential threats of global war, resource scarcity, and technology in Sins of the Saviors were imminently more solvable.
For more information about the Sins of the Saviors series, to contact the author, or to obtain permission requests, contact Dystopian Dreams Press at: [email protected].
Media Contact
TJ Relk, Dystopian Dreams Press, 1 Non-applicable, [email protected],
SOURCE Dystopian Dreams Press
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