Golden State by Ben H. Winters

Jan 30, 2019 Annet rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, fantasy, family-ties, weird, apocalyptic, dark, creepy, hope

What if the truth was built on lies?
Absolutely loved this book and I do love this writer who writes dark and thought provoking dystopian novels. 4.6 so five stars. I read some of the criticism on details of the storyline, but h*ll, loved it from start to finish. Weird and out of this world. Could this happen? As usual more to follow but I do recommend this out of the box book.

Welcome to Golden State, where the worst crime you can commit is to lie, in a world where everything is recorded and no ...more

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Feb 20, 2019 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) rated it liked it

Shelves: arc

This book gave me 1984 and The Giver vibes with its dystopian world.

A world where truth is important and lying can get you exiled.

An interesting premise but a shorter format would have worked better for me.

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Dec 16, 2018 Paromjit rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopian, thriller, mystery, netgalley

Ben H. Winters writes a thrilling dystopian novel with a central mystery that puts the protagonist on a challenging road that questions everything he has ever believed in. Golden State is a future version of California, a state where truth and objectivity is everything and to veer from this central tenet risks jail and exile. There is no past, no history, no documents, only what is. The concept of fiction no longer exists, and a novel is now understood to be a true history or truth, an Ben H. Winters writes a thrilling dystopian novel with a central mystery that puts the protagonist on a challenging road that questions everything he has ever believed in. Golden State is a future version of California, a state where truth and objectivity is everything and to veer from this central tenet risks jail and exile. There is no past, no history, no documents, only what is. The concept of fiction no longer exists, and a novel is now understood to be a true history or truth, an interesting concept as storytelling is an integral part of what it is to be human. With echoes of Big Brother in Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, there is complete 24 hour surveillance, CCTV and more, with people keeping personal journals of their daily lives, countersigned by others present as the verifiable truth. A bureaucratic approach is central in this society with vital importance placed on record keeping as an objective plank to confirming the truth.

54 year old Laz Ratesic is an experienced law enforcer, part of the Speculator Service, the only ones allowed to speculate what the truth might be. Laz still carries grief over the death of his brother, a legendary fellow speculator. In this disturbing world, Laz and his new female black partner look into the death of a man who fell off a rooftop, is it an accident or something more sinister? Laz has had no reason to question the world he lives in, it is his truth and he stands by it. His perception slowly begins to shatter as he investigates, for bubbling beneath the surface are power struggles, corruption and resistance. The truth is open to manipulation, nothing is as it seems, and nothing can be relied on, including Laz himself. This is twisted and suspenseful storytelling, of conspiracy, with beautifully imagined world building from the author. It reflects our contemporary ailments, such as fake news whilst exploring the concepts of tyranny, absolute truth and objectivity. This is brilliant thought provoking fiction which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Many thanks to Random House Cornerstone for an ARC. ...more

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Feb 16, 2019 Robin rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction, group-read, american, 2019, noir

Can you handle the truth? I am asking you, Tom Cruise.

This dystopian-speculative-noir beauty will draw you in, and bring to mind classics of its ilk: 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. This book is set in an unknown time, in the state formerly known as California. Something of great import has happened to cause the government to protect its citizens by enforcing a society based on TRUTH, or, as they call it, "Objectively So".

Sounds okay, but it isn't. It's a militaristic, big-brother-esque world in which Can you handle the truth? I am asking you, Tom Cruise.

This dystopian-speculative-noir beauty will draw you in, and bring to mind classics of its ilk: 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. This book is set in an unknown time, in the state formerly known as California. Something of great import has happened to cause the government to protect its citizens by enforcing a society based on TRUTH, or, as they call it, "Objectively So".

Sounds okay, but it isn't. It's a militaristic, big-brother-esque world in which anything contrary to the 'truth' is an act against the state, and punishable by prison or worse, exile. It's a world in which people greet each other by exchanging indisputable facts ("A cow has four stomachs." "A person has one."). It's a world in which people called Speculators who, like drug-sniffing dogs, can practically smell a lie, bring criminals to meet their out-of-proportion punishments.

The main character, Laszlo, is one of those lie-sniffers. He's from a family of lie-sniffers, and he sniffs himself into a crap-load of trouble.

Ben H. Winters spins quite the tale, a story that begs to be read compulsively for the first 3/4, and then drops into a bizarre Scooby-Doo ending in which identities are revealed, "TA-DA", and pumpkins are inexplicably launched off the top of the Mirage hotel. I didn't enjoy the ending, truth be told.

But, in the spirit of full disclosure, I did love much of the book. It made me think about truth, its subjectivity, and its varying degrees. It made me think about how truth can be twisted, and is twisted, by the Powers That Be.

I enjoyed how the author used fiction itself in an ironic, playful way, as a study of "truth". The state bans its citizens to read seductive and tempting novels because fiction is deemed fabrication, and therefore illegal. Yet it is through this supposedly lie-filled medium that we receive this story.

It also made me think about how lying is an essential part of human freedom, how it works for good as well as bad. How I wished longingly for the characters to have the space, the privacy, even the creativity, to tell a good whopper, for better or worse.

Two plus two equals four. Ben H. Winters is worth reading.

3.75 stars ...more

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Nov 27, 2018 Andrew Smith rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, netgalley, apocalypse

It’s not clear when it happened or what happened, but it was BIG. Now nobody talks about it, in fact everything before has been erased: there are no documents, there is no known history. This new world, in the same place as the old world, has rules that preclude lots of things and knowledge of the past is one of them. But the biggest sin is to lie, to lie about anything. To disobey this edict can result in serious jail time.

The place is called the Golden State and it’s what used to be It’s not clear when it happened or what happened, but it was BIG. Now nobody talks about it, in fact everything before has been erased: there are no documents, there is no known history. This new world, in the same place as the old world, has rules that preclude lots of things and knowledge of the past is one of them. But the biggest sin is to lie, to lie about anything. To disobey this edict can result in serious jail time.

The place is called the Golden State and it’s what used to be California, or at least part of it, and it’s easy to recognise the centre in which most of this story plays out as Los Angeles. We see events through the eyes of Laszlo Ratesic. He’s a big guy with a gift: he can sense when people are not telling the truth. Laszlo job is to use this gift as part of the law enforcement team. There are cameras everywhere too – and I mean everywhere. Everything is recorded and each individual is compelled to document every interaction with people they come into contact with. Nothing is secret from the State.

It’s in this claustrophobic environment that we first encounter Laszlo as he addresses a minor lie he identifies whilst having breakfast at a restaurant. For this innocuous fib a young man will most likely serve a five-year sentence. They don’t mess around here! But soon Laszlo is called to the scene of what looks to be an accidental death: a man has fallen off a roof in what is most likely a simple working accident. But is it? From this point the story spreads out and we meet various characters including some of Ratesic’s colleagues, his ex-wife and various people loosely connected with the death. We will now see in more detail how things work in this new world.

It’s an interesting construction and I was drawn deeply into the story in the first third of the book. Laszlo is an unhappy man: haunted by the death of his brother (a fellow law officer, who also had ‘the gift’) and his estrangement from the love of his life. And he’s started to wonder about what came before the Golden State. But for a while book then seemed to struggle to balance time spent on resolving the mystery of the dead man versus the bigger picture of what the hell was going on in this place and how did we get here in the first place. I was impatient for the second element to be addressed. But in the final third the book delivered its big punches and supplied a satisfying (if not wholly surprising) finale.

I’m a little stuck between awarding four stars or five, but I’m going to settle of four simply because the midsection of the book dragged a little for me. But I do admire the invention and imagination employed here – and I might come back and upgrade my rating once I’ve spent a little longer reflecting on this thought-provoking tale.

My sincere thanks to Random House UK, Cornerstone and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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Oct 01, 2019 Jenna rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopia

“They say the real truth is that there is no such thing as truth at all, there’s only perception."

According to a 2002 study conducted by the University of Massachusetts, 60% of adults can’t have a ten minute conversation without lying at least once. Even people who state that they never lie find they indeed do so, when recordings are played back to them. So what would a world without lies be like, a world where it is illegal to tell even so much as a little harmless white lie?

In Ben H. “They say the real truth is that there is no such thing as truth at all, there’s only perception."

According to a 2002 study conducted by the University of Massachusetts, 60% of adults can’t have a ten minute conversation without lying at least once. Even people who state that they never lie find they indeed do so, when recordings are played back to them. So what would a world without lies be like, a world where it is illegal to tell even so much as a little harmless white lie?

In Ben H. Winters' Golden State, a new nation has been formed in which it is illegal to lie. Fed up with lying politicians and untruths in the media, the founders of Golden State create a state where people are under constant surveillance in order that no one can get away with telling a lie. Every conversation is recorded and cameras are everywhere, preserving images of where people go and what they do. In this way, history can always be played back when there is any question of whether someone is telling the truth or not.

Our MC Lazlo is an enforcer of this truth law, the Objectively So. He is able to detect when people are lying by seeing wavers in the air and picking up odors. He is dedicated to his job, committed to ensuring that nothing but the truth is ever told. However, Lazlo comes to realise that truth is subjective, indeed, often there is no one truth. As he embarks on a new case to find a murderer, Lazlo struggles with the implications that there is no such thing as absolute truth even in this fact-obsessed society in which he lives. The lies he uncovers along the way shocks him to his very core, dismantling the entire foundation on which he stands.

I really enjoyed this book though maybe not as much as Winters' The Last Policeman which i read earlier this month. It is an engaging read though some parts are predictable. Mr. Winters is one of those authors who is able to create characters you come to feel you know personally and begin to care about. I love his books for that reason, and he's an excellent storyteller too.

Golden State will make you think -- and make you wonder how many lies you actually tell. I loved how, in the book, people had to greet each other with factual statements such as, "“Good morning. Pi represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.” It made me think of how we often greet people, even those we don't know, with "Hi, how are you?" and then the other responds, "Fine and you?" all whilst we really don't care to get an honest answer, nor do we expect one. When someone (other than someone we know well perhaps) answers, "Not so well" we are take aback and unsure what to say. It would be more honest if we instead greeted people by saying, "Hello, there are 24 hours in a day.", and yet, that wouldn't feel quite so friendly. I might just try it sometime for laughs though, to see what kind of strange looks I get!

If you enjoy dystopia, you should give this book a try. It's not an action-packed read, though there is action. It meanders at times and is introspective. These are the kinds of books I love, books that make me think and that really get me inside someone else's head! ...more

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Feb 16, 2019 Lark Benobi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: us, 2019, male-identified-authors

Let it be known that I loved this novel. It kept making me happier and happier. Instead of the cranky nihilism I've come to expect from dystopian novels, this novel instead evolves into a lovely fatalism. I loved that love wins, if in an extreme sort of way.

But what a pretzel of a book! At first it fooled me into thinking it was some kind of futuristic police procedural, and then a thriller, and then a story of conspiracy about the evil state…and then? Well. The novel just transforms itself Let it be known that I loved this novel. It kept making me happier and happier. Instead of the cranky nihilism I've come to expect from dystopian novels, this novel instead evolves into a lovely fatalism. I loved that love wins, if in an extreme sort of way.

But what a pretzel of a book! At first it fooled me into thinking it was some kind of futuristic police procedural, and then a thriller, and then a story of conspiracy about the evil state…and then? Well. The novel just transforms itself into something wonderful and new. Something that filled me with joy.

Golden State not only plays with what is true/what is reality, but also, more fundamentally, what makes life worth living. In the end it becomes a paean to the simplest joys of life. The joy, for instance, of finally realizing that you're in charge of your own life story. The joy of family, no matter how broken your family is. The joy of stupid fun. The joy of wasting things. The joy of keeping secrets. The joy of pretending.

So right about here in my review, to be honest, I'm a little nervous about why no other reviews are talking about the aspects of Golden State that I found so profound and so meaningful. But the novel is also one of the best fake-out novels I've ever read, so much so that reviewers at Kirkus and The Washington Post and NPR seem to have been faked out completely by the novel's subversion of expectations. The WaPo reviewer is particularly grumpy that the last third of the novel, because rather than following the norms of a genre-dystopian-police-procedural, it evolves instead into a moving exploration of what makes life worth living; of what makes us human. Sorry to disappoint you, WaPo reviewer. This novel went in a different direction from your expectation.

As you read it though you may discover yourself getting similarly cranky when the book doesn't conform to your expectation--for instance what the heck are these interstitial, poorly-written, san-serif chapters doing there?--but my advice is to just let go of every expectation. See where the novel leads you. ...more

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Dec 28, 2018 megs_bookrack marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2019-releases, sci-fi-to-read

The BOTM picks are up!! This is not a drill.

They are up and I chose this one. This speculative fiction definitely sounds up my alley. I have been craving stories like this lately.

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Feb 18, 2019 Tim rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2010s, mystery-crime, reviewed, science-fiction

Well, this book was a rollercoaster ride in terms of what rating I thought I would give it. It started out a solid 4 stars, with a decent possibility of a 5 as I went along. We then came to one of the most annoying tropes that could have possibly been picked, and it went down to 3 stars. Then something happened that I found clever and thought I may have to reread the book to see if I missed something and it went back to a 4. The book then tried to subvert expectations, undid the fairly clever Well, this book was a rollercoaster ride in terms of what rating I thought I would give it. It started out a solid 4 stars, with a decent possibility of a 5 as I went along. We then came to one of the most annoying tropes that could have possibly been picked, and it went down to 3 stars. Then something happened that I found clever and thought I may have to reread the book to see if I missed something and it went back to a 4. The book then tried to subvert expectations, undid the fairly clever thing one page later and went down to 2 stars. It stayed at that rating until I was almost done writing this review, realized that my fingers were practically hitting the keys on the keyboard and lowered it to a 1 out of emotion rather than taking any of the positive aspects into account.

The idea of this story is so clever, that I really wanted to absolutely love this… but seemingly at every turn it tried to alienate me. It annoyed me thoroughly around the half way point, but the frustrating thing is that I can’t tell people the book is terrible, because it is well written and I’m sure some people WILL like the direction it went, just not me. I finished it more out of an annoyed stubbornness than actually wanting to see the end. To say more would be spoilers, so consider that my review unless you want details. If that’s the case, you can stop speculating and learn the horrible truth below.

(view spoiler)[So, at first I loved this. It’s a great police procedural style novel, but with the twist of a dystopian world. It’s set up in such a fascinating way with the opening scene, involving a teenager telling his mother that he stole some of her drugs, when in fact his brother did. As a liar though, the teenage is sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison, in contrast to the son who stole the drugs who gets off without any jail time as there is no proof that he stole with the intent to sell, and his mother doesn’t wish to prosecute. This is a fascinating world as it has your standard big brother type government, but our leads are agents of it, and it’s all just a job to them.

It was all going so well, until the cliché™ happened. Secrets are revealed that those on high don’t want known so our detectives are forced off the case. Of course they’re going to continue on alone, being renegade cops with no regard for the rules… oh, wait, the rules were everything to them a few pages ago. Eh, ignore that.

Why? Why do this? The book created such a unique and interesting world. The mystery aspect was fascinating, as our cast are essentially living lie detectors, the case wasn’t a matter of figuring out the lies, but seeing the omitted details. That was fascinating! Instead, we had to throw out the old and tired corruption cliché. Golly gee, you mean our 1984 style government is corrupt? Gosh, never saw that coming! I mean, seriously, no sci-fi or noir reader has ever seen that one! By pulling this stupid, stupid cliché and changing the style of story, they took out just about everything I was enjoying. I liked seeing the world from a government employ point of view, I liked seeing how the police department operated with their rules and regulations, but no, we lost the police procedural and became the standard run of the mill corruption thriller.

I know this won’t bother some people, and indeed some may even delight in the change, but for me this is a bitter disappointment after absolutely loving the first half. Words cannot express my annoyance. Sarcasm won’t cut it and profanity will only get old to the people reading this review. For a book that was so unique up to this point, the fact that they went with the obvious cliché is just ridiculous.

The book almost made up for it with a reveal that our narrator killed his own brother. That would have been an interesting twist, given that it would have been able to explore the hypocrisy in the system on a more personal level (his upholding the truth more than anything, despite having committed a crime) and also would have been interesting as he talks about his brother throughout the novel, but up to this point, never says how he died. That would have been interesting, because again, it would be about omission rather than lies… but no, literally one page after this reveal, it is retconned. A just kidding moment… and at that point I just didn’t care how this was going to end.

Two last annoying notes about the ending, just because both piss me off. Where did Lazlo’s magic lie detecting skills go to when he confronts Arlo? Not only does he seem stupider than presented before (Yep, I should totally shoot a hologram because he told me to do so) but Arlo lies to him, he perceives no lies in the room, and acts off it. How did these skills just disappear? Has Arlo somehow mastered the art of deception in such a way that these human lie detects can’t notice? Seriously this doesn’t make sense and is just annoying as it goes against the rules the book had presented before.

And then there is Charlie. Why the hell is Charlie alive at the end? There is no explanation for how he survived. He’s been presumed dead for years. How did he survive Arlo? Given the condition he’s in, and the fact that it took him much longer to reach Vegas than Lazlo, how did he survive the trip? How did the people in Vegas let him in given the paranoia we see when Lazlo finally makes it there? It’s such a deus ex machine ending and it annoys the hell out of me. (hide spoiler)]

In closing, the book started off showing a fascinating world and managed to be amazing for the first half. After that things rapidly go down hill. I don’t know if the plan is for there to be a sequel about the city, but after all that, I don’t even care. 1/5 stars. ...more

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Paige I definitely understand your ire about the book not turning out how you had hoped, and I also finished this book with a poorer opinion than I had at I definitely understand your ire about the book not turning out how you had hoped, and I also finished this book with a poorer opinion than I had at the halfway mark. But I did want to offer some (belated) thoughts on some comments/questions you posed.

Golly gee, you mean our 1984 style government is corrupt?

But in this case, the "corrupt" ones (I think you're referring to Arlo and them?) are more like moles who oppose and are trying to overthrow the surveillance state and totalitarian government. To me it's not really clear that they are "bad"--if I lived in a world like that one, Arlo & co. would be the heroes for trying to undo it; of course, Arlo appears to have killed at least four librarians, but often in stories the "good guys" kill people, too. Apparently his partner Ms. Paige's parents were exiled for being inside a house with no active captures, leaving her basically an orphan; she's pissed and sees the harm the state is doing, too, and in that sense I don't see it as a straightforward "corruption" plot.

Where did Lazlo’s magic lie detecting skills go to when he confronts Arlo? ... How did these skills just disappear?

I wondered this, too. I think it has to do with the fact that Arlo et al. were very practiced liars; they had been getting together and practicing telling untruths to each other for years, decades. Since this world heavily discourages lying, it seems that "most" people wouldn't do it very often and so would be much easier to detect. Perhaps tying into this, maybe what the Speculators sense is guilt, and people like Arlo don't have any since they absolutely believe themselves to be in the right. Also, their interaction happened after Laszlo had read a novel, which he admitted messed with his head and made it hard to distinguish reality, which could be a factor in why his lie detecting skills seem scrambled. Those answers satisfy me as far as the Arlo conversation, but I'm more confused in regard to what went down at Captain Elena's house; he feels strongly that they are false captures but then there is footage of everything that happened; personally I think the footage was doctored like the other stuff and they were truly fakes, but it's possible they were real captures and Ms. Paige was able to fool him into believing they were fakes with her acting abilities. Or... something else? It's not clear.

As for Charlie being in Las Vegas, that part made zero sense to me and did seem sloppy and poorly thought out. ...more
updated Dec 27, 2019 10:03PM

Julia Lynch Entirely agree on the book becoming less and less good over the course of reading it. Such a letdown! So many holes, especially at the end. Why!
23 hours, 45 min ago

Feb 02, 2019 Matt rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime, 2019

Sometimes a book sits with you to the point that you can’t stop thinking about it. Golden State won’t be for everyone, but it’s one of those books that leave the reader thinking. I like books that question reality and what reality means. In today’s world that’s more important than ever. With news being flung around at a frantic pace without fact-checking, we are susceptible to misinformation. This book imagines what it would be like if lying were against the law. Ben Winters crafts an intriguing Sometimes a book sits with you to the point that you can’t stop thinking about it. Golden State won’t be for everyone, but it’s one of those books that leave the reader thinking. I like books that question reality and what reality means. In today’s world that’s more important than ever. With news being flung around at a frantic pace without fact-checking, we are susceptible to misinformation. This book imagines what it would be like if lying were against the law. Ben Winters crafts an intriguing detective story set in a compelling dystopian universe.

Lazlo Ratesic is a downtrodden detective that works for an organization called The Speculative Service. In a society where telling a lie will send you to exile, their job is to get the truth. Lazlo gets paired with an ambitious sidekick named Aysa Paige, an ambitious newcomer to the Speculative Service. Lazlo and Aysa have to investigate a man falling off of a roof. At first, it seems to be an open and shut case, but as they start investigating they travel down a rabbit hole that will have them questioning their truths and realities.

Winters does a great job of making this a detective story at its core. Detective novel connoisseurs will appreciate the similarities between Lazlo and the likes of Sam Spade. The interactions between Ratesic and Paige are entertaining. Ratesic is one of those characters that prefer to go solo in life. He’s a seasoned veteran, not wanting any complications. Paige, on the other hand, is an ambitious newcomer and wants Lazlo to show her the ropes.

Golden State is shelved mostly as a dystopian sci-fi book, but, in order to enjoy this book, you’ll have to appreciate detective novels and how they work. The dystopian elements are essential to the story and the ending, but it is still a detective novel at its core. I suspect that the ending of this book will be talked about at length. It’s one of those endings that readers will either love or hate. I found closure in the ending and it will stick with me for a while. ...more

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Dec 14, 2018 Blake Crouch rated it it was amazing

Golden State is a prescient, devastating commentary on humanity's disintegrating attachment to reality and truth, expertly told through the prism of a police-procedural, dystopian nightmare. Winters has written a 1984 for the 21st century. Not just a thrilling book, but an important one.

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Nov 17, 2018 Emma rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopia, post-apocalypse

This was really good! I’d never heard of this author before but was granted an ARC of this book from Netgalley. It is a commentary on truth- is there such a thing as absolute truth? Can it be determined through a society where everything is documented and recorded? Does everyone live by the same rules or are some exempt? How fear of the unknown can imprison us. Excellent read!

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Nov 16, 2018 Emma rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

This started out well enough but turned into a goddamn mess by the end.

Mr Laszlo Ratesic is a Speculator tasked with searching out liars. It's something more than just an instinct, he can feel the sickening nature equivocations, half truths, avoidances, and outright fabrications all around him. When a man falls to his death from the roof of a house, there seems like there may be more to the story than meets the eye, and with his fresh faced new parter in tow, he is drawn into the kind of This started out well enough but turned into a goddamn mess by the end.

Mr Laszlo Ratesic is a Speculator tasked with searching out liars. It's something more than just an instinct, he can feel the sickening nature equivocations, half truths, avoidances, and outright fabrications all around him. When a man falls to his death from the roof of a house, there seems like there may be more to the story than meets the eye, and with his fresh faced new parter in tow, he is drawn into the kind of conspiracy that could threaten not only their lives, but the foundations of the whole State.

So what we initially have is a noir style piece of detective fiction set in a dystopian future, the dour main character and his young, female, black partner who needs to be shown the ropes ticking every conventional box. Except this is a world where everything is recorded and archived, every moment documented so it can all factor in to the Objectively So, things KNOWN to be true because see...the evidence is right here... In a period when definitions of truth and lies are blurred beyond all recognition, it is, at first, easy to see how such a concept could acquire legitimacy and power. Yet extremes such as this never work out quite as planned and as the investigation progresses, the glaring holes in the system are revealed, as are the ways in which it might be manipulated. The world building is creative, detailed, and thorough, each point thought through to its ultimate conclusion. Cleverly, the author reels the reader in with the seemingly innocuous rules and ideas, things which feel like they might be a good idea, before plunging the readers in to the darker depths of where such paths will (inevitably??) lead. Cool idea, good execution. Happiness all round.

At the start, Laz is somewhat difficult to get behind as a narrator but nevertheless is a fully fleshed out and understandable character, while those around him are less so. If the book had remained a murder mystery/conspiracy style investigation, I think I would have been satisfied with his progression from inflexible jobsworth to someone more open minded and empathic. His tentative steps away from the rigidity of his job, his acceptance of his failures in the past, and his slow, often faltering comprehension that he may not truly understand the world around him are some of the author's best work, ranging from moving to pretty funny. Instead, his part in plot (and actually the narrative as a whole) gets increasingly unlikely until there comes a moment so out of left field that it arrives from beyond the furthest reaches of said field and lands like a wet shit. Speculative fiction has a lot of leeway to challenge the reader but rarely do authors WTF me out of a novel so hard as this one did. Nope.

ARC via Netgalley

...more

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Nov 30, 2018 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018-shelf, sci-fi, worldbuilding-sf, mystery

I'm always a BIG fan of science fiction that girds its loins in the heaviest armor and strides boldly into the darkest, most complicated territories. The more ambitious the novel, the more props I am absolutely forced to give it. :) Of course, it has to also blow me away, but the core courage and not just good writing has to shine through for me to WOOOOOOOO!!!! ;)

It's easy enough to say this is a panopticon where every last bit of our modern lives in this future Utopian California resembles ...more

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Sep 30, 2018 Liz Barnsley rated it it was amazing

I’m the BIGGEST fan of The Last Policeman trilogy so to say I was excited to read “Golden State” would be a serious understatement.
It didn’t disappoint- this is a hugely relevant speculative tale, but also a massively entertaining piece of fiction that had me banging through it in record time…
Laz is brilliant, so engaging, living in the shadow of his legendary brother, one of the few people tasked with keeping the record quite literally straight as he senses lies in the air around him.
The world ...more

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Nov 12, 2019 Joe Valdez rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned, sci-fi-general

My introduction to the fiction of Ben H. Winters is Golden State. On one hand, I picked this up at the library after many novels ahead of it on my reading docket weren't available and neither were titles by Winters that sounded more compelling: The Last Policeman and Underground Airlines. On the other hand, that means I opened it with zero expectations. I gave Winters five chapters and 60 pages before abandoning this. I've quit more novels lately than I'd like to, but this one is the dullest, My introduction to the fiction of Ben H. Winters is Golden State. On one hand, I picked this up at the library after many novels ahead of it on my reading docket weren't available and neither were titles by Winters that sounded more compelling: The Last Policeman and Underground Airlines. On the other hand, that means I opened it with zero expectations. I gave Winters five chapters and 60 pages before abandoning this. I've quit more novels lately than I'd like to, but this one is the dullest, laziest, most woefully unable or unwilling to justify its sorry existence of the lot.

The story, as far as I can tell a fifth of the way through, involves Laszlo Ratesic, veteran of the Speculative Services in a Los Angeles. Ratesic and others like him use their extrasensory gifts to detect lies the way a pig sniffs out truffles. The state promptly imprisons anyone busted telling a fib. Ratesic, like every cop in every other bad cop movie you've seen, works alone, so of course, his captain assigns him a rookie partner, a young woman named Aysa Paige. Ratesic condescends to and berates Aysa so harshly in public that even the mad men at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce would ask what the fuck is wrong with this guy.

The case that the two Speculative Service detectives catch involves a roofer who falls to his death while repairing some tiles on a mansion. Accidental death, of course, until Ratesic discovers that their subject wasn't scheduled to work today. Is there a liar on the loose? Perhaps a killer? Will Ratesic stop treating his young female partner like Harvey Weinstein has been forgotten in the time of this novel? Apparently, Golden State has gone authoritarian due to an erosion of truth in government and public life. Those wacky liberals! See what banning soft drinks started?

Maybe you'll enjoy this novel more than I did. Here are the first three paragraphs of Chapter 1, the author's spot and also responsibility to do his or her best writing and hook me:

Somebody's telling lies in here, and it's making it hard to eat.

In a perfect world, a man should be able to sit down at a favorite spot and eat his breakfast without the weight of professional obligation coming down on him, ruining his morning, pulling him right into the thick of it before he can so much as get a good hot sip of coffee.

But the world has never been accused of being perfect, has it, and so here we are and here is what actually happens--here is reality. No sooner has Honey the waitress slid my steaming breakfast plate down in front of me, right next to a piping-hot cup of mountain-grown, than I catch a small dissonance in the air--the barest ripple, the softest whisper--but it can't be ignored. My body won't let me ignore it. The burble catches in my throat, my eyes prick with tears, and I put down my fork and say "Shit."

Ugh. Where to begin?

I found the conceit of psychic cops cluttered up what seems like a dystopian novel. Either idea would've offered plenty to explore in a book this pithy, but together, they clog the narrative up. Ratesic is the first-person narrator and this is also a problem. He's an insufferable, ill-mannered, foul-mouthed, redheaded brute, bullying his new partner past the point I wanted to spend any time with him. And pricks and psychic ability don't really mix well together. When was the last movie you saw about a character with a sixth sense who walked around acting like a jerk? It's just off.

I didn't find the conceit of a society that has outlawed lying to be compelling either. Ratesic roots out a lie in the diner, where a woman's grown son is lying about stealing her medication. Ratesic has him arrested with a six to nine year prison term dangling in front of the boy. So not only is our narrator a prick, but he's boring. The prose is sloppy, the dialogue lazy, plotting weak. I'm not even going to bother analyzing the political sensibilities of Winters, whether this is a parable about fascism or daffy liberalism run amok. It's such a light, hastily written and poorly imagined effort that I could really care less.

Word count: 92,587 words (seems more like 70,000 words but my word counting app says different) ...more

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Jan 28, 2019 Gabby rated it liked it

Shelves: adult, liked-it, 3-star-books, botm, lost-interest, over-freaking-hyped, own, cover-lust, dystopia, reviewed

This was a strange book that progressively got more strange as I got closer to the end. This is a dystopian novel about a futuristic California where there are police who detect lies, and lying causes you to go to prison (or even worse, face execution.) I’m not a huge fan of dystopians but this one sounded interesting, and it is very similar to Fahrenheit 451 as the description claims.

I was really invested in the beginning of this story, it’s very thought provoking and it has a lot to say about ...more

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Jan 29, 2019 Ace rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: tob2020-longlist, tob2020-shortlist

4 stars

Another great read by science fiction novelist Ben H. Winters. This had all the elements of a dystopian novel, fear and hope under new systems of belief and justice and the establishment of a new normal. With hints of 1984 and a touch of supernatural, main protagonist Lazlo Ratesic can sniff out a lie in a noisy and crowded café, and lies are just not on in the Golden State.

As far as mystery’s go, this one had me guessing all the way with its current story arc and the flashbacks to Lazlo ...more

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May 08, 2019 Julie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction-current, mystery, sci-fi-fantasy

"They are librarians, and they do not fuck around." This is one of my favorite lines in this novel. I'll leave out the context so I don't spoil it for you, but I will say that everyone's permanent record is taken very seriously in this tale.

I liked this novel very much. It had enough twists and turns to keep my interest. Toward the end, it was a real page turner. It was a thoughtful dystopian tale with lots of layers. In reality, all of us buy into the world order we are sold and anyone going ...more

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Apr 11, 2019 Emily B rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I didn’t not enjoy this book very much at all which was disappointing.

It didn’t make enough sense and not enough was explained. It was hard to follow at times. I’m still not sure how it all connects and even why some characters were present and what exactly they added to the plot.
It all felt like a bit of a mess

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Feb 28, 2019 David Yoon rated it liked it

It's just such a delicious writerly challenge. You envision some future world - a seemingly benign surveillance state where everything is on video, where everyone records the facts of their days and lives entirely by truth. Where lies are punishable by law and enforced by Speculators that can sense lies in the very air. Where even fiction is banned and TV shows are just curated recordings of actual surveilled events. Now, how does one get away with murder in this world?

And there is this joyful ...more

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Jan 31, 2019 Bridget Jack Jeffries rated it did not like it

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy, botm-club

I can’t even with the terribleness that was this book. This is what really bad 1984 / Fahrenheit 451 fan fiction looks like. This book was a hot mess, the Lindsay Lohan of sci-fi books.

The Golden State is about a dystopian society, established somewhere in California, centered around belief in the Objectively So. This society is dependent on members of the Speculative Service, a police-like force whose members have a sixth sense for detecting lies. That they actually have this power is I can’t even with the terribleness that was this book. This is what really bad 1984 / Fahrenheit 451 fan fiction looks like. This book was a hot mess, the Lindsay Lohan of sci-fi books.

The Golden State is about a dystopian society, established somewhere in California, centered around belief in the Objectively So. This society is dependent on members of the Speculative Service, a police-like force whose members have a sixth sense for detecting lies. That they actually have this power is demonstrated fairly early in the novel, when SS member Laszlo Ratesic is eating breakfast in a crowded, noisy diner and is able to sense a fairly innocuous series of lies that a young man is telling his mother all the way across the diner. The penalty for lying is steep; the young man is told he’ll serve 7-8 years in prison for his crimes.

This isn’t the only power that SS members have. They supposedly have the ability to “speculate,” i. e. mystically determine different possibilities given known facts. They are supposed to use this power selectively, since it amounts to constructing lies in an effort to smoke out the truth.

The Golden State has other ways of keeping tabs on reality. “Captures” (cameras) are everywhere. People are required to keep “day books” and exchange receipts with each other when they interact. And certain portions of reality can be reconstructed given other existing facts.

Sounds really cool, right?

Trust me, it’s not.

Let’s start with Laszlo himself, who’s such a dislikable protagonist that I frequently found myself wanting to stuff his “pinhole” into his mouth. He’s smarmy, overbearing, arrogant, and an all-around jackass. Sure, he softens by the end, when he realizes what a jackass he’s been, but there’s no payoff for the audience since we knew that from the start.

Then there’s the “Speculator” powers world-building, which makes absolutely zero sense by the end of the novel. The actual process of “speculating” is clear as mud, so there’s that. Then the plot involves numerous characters telling huge whoppers of lies, and while I realize that some truths can be oblique, these figures are lying in ways that can only be “objectively so.” I mean, “that depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is” level lies. Yet their lies go undetected by Laszlo’s powers (and he even absorbs some of them into his own reality). Other characters are able to fake captures (yet how they can do this is never explained). Most parts of the world-building are just confusing and hard to understand.

And then there is the ending, which is infuriating. The main character pretty much just walks away from the entire plot, leaving the Golden State to feud with its clandestine insurgents. Little is explained or resolved. And don’t tell me that it’s because there’s going to be another book and this is just #1 of a series. That’s a cop-out for poor writing. It’s okay to leave some things unresolved for a first book in a series, but not pretty much the whole damn book. There still has to be some kind of payoff to make the audience want to continue the second book in the series, and there isn’t here.

This was my January 2019 Book of the Month Club selection, and it’s only the 3rd book in my lifetime that I’ve given 1 star to. This book was Objectively So Terrible.

Book of the Month Club, you have failed this city. ...more

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Feb 17, 2019 Lisa Wolf rated it it was amazing

Shelves: speculative-fiction, science-fiction-fantasy, dystopian-societies, california

Golden State is a weird mind-f*ck of a novel, and that's what makes it so wonderful. In a society where adherence to the Objectively So is the primary goal, the crime of telling a lie can lead to lengthy imprisonment or even exile, a fate assumed to be equivalent to death. Law enforcement agents like Lazlo can feel when a lie has been told, and their ability to sense anomalies leads them in pursuit of those who attempt to subvert the State with their untruths. People greet each other on the ...more

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Mar 03, 2019 Doug rated it liked it

2.5, rounded up.

I'm not quite sure why I didn't cotton to this more than I did - it should have been right up my alley, but I was left more or less ambivalent. It took me an absurdly long time to get into it (three days to get through the first 70 pages), but then it picked up, and I found myself reading it quickly, but more just to get done with it than with any real enthusiasm. It's kind of a strange amalgamation of J G Ballard/Philip K. Dick rewriting the noir detective fiction of ...more

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Feb 28, 2019 Ramona rated it it was amazing

Wow. As I reading this my mind kept thinking - what rating will I give it! A solid 4 stars? A bit higher? Lower? Because as I was reading it my opinion kept bouncing around. I loved it. I hated it. It made me mad. It confused me, and then it sort of all made sense.

I am long time fan of the classic Twilight Zone series and I really felt like all this needed was a Rod Serling intro and it could sit nicely with some of the mind bending favorites of the series.

Golden State is Golden because it is ...more

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Sep 29, 2018 Cindy Burnett rated it liked it

Golden State takes place in a futuristic society that values truth above all else. Both the title of the book and the locale bear the name Golden State, a nation that occupies portions of present-day California. Golden State is a closed place created when the spreading of lies became so widespread that the former society could no longer exist. In this new world, truth is valued above all else to the point that citizens are under constant surveillance, much of their lives are recorded, and those Golden State takes place in a futuristic society that values truth above all else. Both the title of the book and the locale bear the name Golden State, a nation that occupies portions of present-day California. Golden State is a closed place created when the spreading of lies became so widespread that the former society could no longer exist. In this new world, truth is valued above all else to the point that citizens are under constant surveillance, much of their lives are recorded, and those who do not abide by the rules face banishment to an area outside of Golden State. Laszlo Ratesic works for the Speculative Service, an agency whose employees are the few allowed to “speculate” on what might have occurred at crimes without supporting records. Soon after the story begins, Ratesic is sent to the scene of a crime as a Speculator to determine what occurred. As he learns more about the events and the individuals involved, he begins to believe that someone is working to undermine the core beliefs of the Golden State while he also starts questioning whether the society’s dogmatic approach to truth has created more problems than it solves.

Winters constructs an elaborately complex and thought-provoking novel with authentic and well-developed characters. He includes numerous twists and turns that lead the tale down various paths that may surprise readers who believe they have figured out Laszlo’s fate. Most of the book was gripping, and I found myself unable to put it down. However, toward the end the tale veered off in an unexpected and somewhat bizarre direction that left me less enamored with the story. Until then, I would have given it 5 stars; however, the last portion of the book was so different that I felt like I had been dropped into another story entirely, which confused and annoyed me.

In today’s disturbing and hostile political environment, truth has taken a hit. The internet provides a rapid way to disseminate information and as a result to often allow the spread of untruths. As our society strives to rectify this issue, Golden State provides one example of an extreme solution and its results.

Overall, I was fascinated with Golden State and Winters’ futuristic society; I was disappointed in the ending but still feel it is worth reading.
...more

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Feb 16, 2019 Scott Rhee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, science-fiction, dystopia

“There’s no such thing anymore, unfortunately, as facts.” --- Scottie Nell Hughes

And so it happened, in the year 2016, that the End of Truth came about in the land once called the United States of America, and chaos reigned supreme throughout the land. It was a time of confusion and upheaval. When the smoke finally cleared, the survivors were left with no sense of what was True. There were no Facts to keep them grounded. Everything was adrift.

Then, in the land of the west, in a state once called “There’s no such thing anymore, unfortunately, as facts.” --- Scottie Nell Hughes

And so it happened, in the year 2016, that the End of Truth came about in the land once called the United States of America, and chaos reigned supreme throughout the land. It was a time of confusion and upheaval. When the smoke finally cleared, the survivors were left with no sense of what was True. There were no Facts to keep them grounded. Everything was adrift.

Then, in the land of the west, in a state once called California, in a city once called Los Angeles, a group of survivors began an experiment in complete honesty. Law was established based on what is Objectively So. Facts were a bulwark against the factlessness and confusion of the lands to the east. Lying, purposeful misstatements, obfuscation: these became the most heinous of all crimes, punishable by exile.

This land became known as the Golden State. Its inhabitants were happy because life was good in a land in which Truth was the ultimate goal. Nothing bad could ever happen in a perfect place like the Golden State...

Thus begins Ben H. Winters’s wonderfully poignant new novel “Golden State”, a dystopian suspense thriller that perfectly induces the tenor of the Trump Era while blatantly evoking George Orwell’s “1984”, Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451”, and the roman noir of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

Laszlo Ratesic is a Speculator, the highest form of law enforcement in the Golden State. It is his job to uphold the ultimate Law---Truth---by ferreting out the criminals: those insane and stupid enough to commit the ultimate sin: Lying.

He loves his job, almost as much as he loves the Golden State, but things begin to unravel for him when he is assigned a young new partner and a troubling new case.

His partner’s name is Aysa Paige, and she may be as zealous and patriotic as he is. She is certainly great at Speculating; indeed, she reminds him of his older brother, Charlie, whose speculating skills were legendary in the Speculative Services. Charlie died in the line of duty years ago, and Laszlo is still trying to step out from Charlie’s shadow.

The case seems simple enough: a roofing contractor falls from a roof to his death. A tragic and yet extremely explicable accident. Except certain parts of the crime scene don’t add up. Witnesses’ stories are contradicting each other. Then there are the weird things found at the contractor’s home, things which he should not have had, as they are illegal in the Golden State. Most notably: a book of fiction. Fiction is not only banned, it is looked at as the most evil of evils in a land in which Objective Fact is gospel.

“Golden State” is the best kind of science fiction: so thoroughly engaging and immersive that one doesn’t even know that it’s science fiction. Winters succeeds in doing this through well-developed characters that carry the story. These are real, believable people, and while they may live in worlds that seem alien to us, their actions and feelings are all very familiar.

As he did so well in “Underground Airlines”, Winters manages to create a more-than-believable world. It is almost frighteningly prophetic. It almost doesn’t even read like a dystopic future at all but rather a disturbingly plausible alternative present, one that anyone who has been paying attention for the past few years can totally see happening. ...more

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Dec 14, 2018 Roman Clodia rated it liked it · review of another edition

There are some thought-provoking ideas on display here as Winters creates a world that is based on a dystopian California where to lie is outlawed and where the whole state apparatus is geared to creating, demonstrating and validating a single and allegedly provable and objective truth and reality. Fiction no longer exists and the term 'novel' has been re-engineered to mean truthful story or history.

The problem is, I immediately started questioning a) how this could have come about, b) how ...more

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Dec 30, 2018 Book of the Month added it

Why I love it
by Liberty Hardy

The future is no place for liars in this Orwellian thriller about surveillance and secrets. So when I got my hands on Golden State I was thrilled. A wildly imaginative tale of a future California where citizens are subject to constant scrutiny, and lying is the most serious offense a person can commit? Yikes—and count me in.

Laszlo Ratesic is a skilled member of the Speculative Service, a special branch of the Golden State government that employs a select few who can ...more

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Jan 08, 2019 Carolyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, netgalley, netgalley-2019, mystery, dystopian

The Golden State is a futuristic dystopian California where truth is all important and those who lie are jailed. Everyone is constantly under constant video surveillance and must keep a Day Book recording all their daily actions and conversations. People greet each other by reeling off facts (such as the square of three is nine) and there is no fiction only 'novels' stating known truths. Laszlo Ratesic is a human lie detector, employed by the Speculative Services to enforce the law as he can ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Play Book Tag: Golden State by Ben Winters- 4 stars	3	18	Jan 19, 2020 05:06AM
Tournament of Books: Golden State	21	104	Jan 17, 2020 05:14PM
Tournament of Books: 2020 Play-In Round	1	40	Dec 16, 2019 01:11PM
Book of The Month: Golden State	7	48	Mar 22, 2019 08:54PM

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