ELDORADO a Sober, Realistic Look at Our Future
In
post Peak-Oil Vancouver, Canada, the future is not bright. The end of the
Petroleum Age means the luxuries we’ve come to enjoy – automobiles, computers, and
e-readers – have been left in the distant past. Suburban communities like
Surrey have been largely abandoned, and Vancouver itself is becoming a human
wasteland of joblessness and homelessness. This is the stage set for author Jay
Allan Storey’s new dystopian novel, Eldorado.
The
novel’s protagonist, Richard Hampton, is one of the few Vancouver residents
with some semblance of a normal life. A college professor, he still has a house
which he shares with his younger, troubled teenage brother, Danny. But when
Danny disappears, the local police are unable to search for the missing youth,
and Richard is forced to give up his comfort and set out to find his brother.
Richard’s
journey takes him through the decaying remains of a civilization that was built
on cheap oil, and destroyed itself by not heeding the warnings about dwindling
oil supplies. The world Storey creates is no Mad Max look at the future, but a
sobering, realistic view of what might lie ahead of us.
Those lucky enough to have homes must turn to subsistence
farming to survive. Fuel and electricity are rationed by the government. There
are few automobiles, and those are owned only by the wealthiest citizens.
Bicycles and the occasional antiquated electric street car are the main modes
of transport; even the police are restricted to patrolling on small, under-powered
motorcycles called “mosquitoes” due to the high-pitch whine of their engines.
Criminal gangs and right-wing militias (who still don’t
believe the Oil Age has ended) make the abandoned suburbs where Richard must
search a No-Mans-Land. Beyond the setting of Vancouver, wars are being fought
for whatever natural resources remain, but without oil the great armies of the
United States and China have become little more than 19th century
horse-drawn throw-backs.
Eldorado is an
engaging and thrilling adventure, while also being a serious and thought
provoking warning about the future that lies ahead.
