The Price of Safety by Michael C. Bland is one of the rare novels that gets near-future science fiction right. Many books and movies in the near-future genre tend to be so over-the-top that they are more fantasy than science. Bland’s new book is realistic hard science fiction in the best sense.
Near-future science fiction has been around since the 19th Century. Early on, these stories favored utopian societies. As the 20th Century suffered through world wars, nuclear proliferation, and the rise of fascist states, near-future sci-fi gave us a glimpse of a darker future. The best of these stories are rooted in a believable reality—just askew of our current state of being and understanding.
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four does this well. Even though published in 1949, the future world that Orwell created with “telescreens” that both broadcast and surveil was not so many degrees off from readers’ reality to render it fantasy. That delicate balance of believability is what makes near-future sci-fi great. And that brings us to The Price of Safety.
Author Michael C. Bland builds a near-future world not that different from our current reality. And that is what makes his technological thriller so realistically frightening.
WHAT IS THE PRICE OF SAFETY?
Set in 2047, The Price of Safety introduces us to Dray Quintero, a scientist-inventor who is a partner in a large technology company. In just a few pages, we are swept along with Quintero as he is plunged into a life-and-death event that threatens his family. In this future America, there is no privacy. Technology is everywhere and “they” are always watching. Even personal implants are accessible by government entities.
The rub is Quintero helped to create the technology that will be used against him as he fights to keep his family safe from government agents in a world where surveillance is literally everywhere.
READER’S NOTE: The details provided in this review give nothing away beyond what is printed on the back cover of the book.
TECHNO-THRILLER
Bland goes to great lengths to create a world embedded with technology. Nearly every page has some mention of technology—from nuanced applications to bold inventions. Despite all the tech, the novel doesn’t get bogged down by it. The Price of Safety keeps the reader constantly moving forward following Quintero’s frantic efforts to keep one step ahead of shadowy government agents.
Additionally, at the heart of the book (and Quintero’s motives) is the importance of family. Bland allows the human element to rise above the technological landscape. This is a tale about a family trying to survive in a society where zero privacy and zero tolerance is the norm.
My final insight before getting to my interview with Michael C. Bland is that The Price of Safety is not a dystopian novel like Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Let’s call it pre-dystopian because the powers-that-be have not reduced citizens to slaves of the state. However, all the tools and technology are there to make that happen. A reality not so different from our own.
AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR MICHAEL C. BLAND
My guest is author Michael C. Bland and his latest book is The Price of Safety.
Michael, the central message of The Price of Safety is obviously the conundrum of how much privacy and freedom we, as a society, are willing to give up for safety. In particular, the benefits and risks of future technology looms large. What was your motivation for focusing on this issue?
I’m not someone who believes conspiracy theories or has a nice collection of tinfoil hats, but the reality is we are catalogued, tracked, monitored, and listened to more and more every day—and we allow it. To enjoy our smartphones, Ring devices, Amazon Echos and Google Dots, we agree to legal agreements that are vague and slanted against us. And there are millions of those devices out there.
While much of the data these devices collect seems harmless, it’s not. Digital records are being made about you, sold to groups without your consent, and used in ways that may hurt you. We have to be aware of and be involved with what we agree to, and what we decide as a society is acceptable. Otherwise, we could find ourselves in the same position as Dray Quintero (the main character of The Price of Safety) desperately trying to protect his family against forces much more powerful than he is.
While reading your book, it seemed to me that there were additional underlying messages. Could you tell us about that?
There are a number of messages (and as a preface, I’m not trying to preach—I don’t like being preached to myself—but I want to show how the world could end up if we’re not careful). I wanted to explore how family will evolve in the age of growing technology, which can draw us apart instead of bring us together. I also wanted to explore the difficulty of a regular citizen making a difference in today’s age, especially when pitted against the might of the federal government.
More than that, though, I want to remind everyone that we are all neighbors. This is our only home. We may disagree, but we need to take care of each other. This means taking care of the planet and those who can’t protect themselves, and really seeing what our future could become if we let it. There is no right way. Neither side is correct. But the more we ignore the reality of what we’re doing—with the partisanship, the changes to our environment, our reliance on fossil fuels—the worse our planet will become. We all exist on one tiny marble in an empty expanse of space. If we don’t make some hard choices as a species, we will suffer.
The protagonist, Dray Quintero, is an action hero of sorts. Most action heroes in literature and movies are lone wolves. Either their family was killed or estranged, or they simply never had time for a family. Yet Quintero is very much a family man with wife and kids, which is central to his motivations in the story. Was it difficult to write a primary character that is both action hero and family man?
It was difficult, but I enjoyed the challenge, not only because it was a kind of character I don’t remember encountering in other thriller-type novels, but because it was a key part of the story. Dray’s need to protect his family drives his actions throughout The Price of Safety. Our future could be wonderous and a little scary, so I wanted to ground the story in something readers can relate to: protecting those they love.
People will still have children in the future. How will they live and raise them? In particular, if the surveillance that already exists today (cameras, drones, tracking software) continues to expand and advance, Americans in the near future may find themselves living in a country where surveillance is unavoidable. How do you protect your family? That question was a big inspiration for my book.
Technology features prominently in The Price of Safety. I was impressed by the scope of the future tech in your book—from tiny devices like microprocessors in optical lenses to large and extraordinary tech like flying bikes and nuclear fusion generators powered by dark matter. Can you explain how you came up with the many pieces of tech you include throughout the book?
I did a tremendous amount of research, both in terms of our existing technological level and what we can are close to creating. I didn’t limit my research to just one topic, as I wanted to encompass as many possible changes to our world as I could. This was important to make the year 2047 as realistic as possible. Technology already touches nearly every facet of our lives; in another 27 years, it will become unavoidable. I wanted to have a solid understanding of what that world could be like—and how it will not only touch the lives of Dray and his family, but help or hurt them during their struggles. I tried to make each piece of technology in my book plausible, to make the story feel as real as possible.
Relatedly, there is so much detail on each page of the book. Not just for technology, but in deep details about what life may be like in the near future. Normally, I can speed-read most books, but I couldn’t with yours because I would miss important or interesting details. Why was this level of world building important to you?
As I mentioned, I wanted it to be as plausible as possible. Think about how many pieces of technology touch you each day, from emails on your smartphone to Alexa telling you traffic conditions, your car tracking your route, your Ring doorbell telling you someone is at your front door, and so on. In the future, technology will be woven into our lives even more than it already is. Because of this, I wanted The Price of Safety to be as immersive as possible, but I didn’t want to stop the action to describe something. I made a conscious decision to weave vital information throughout the story. This kept the action moving and hopefully brought the reader deeper into the world and the struggles that Dray and his family experience.
Your first novel is set in the superhero genre. The Price of Safety falls in the realm of hard science fiction. How would you categorize yourself as a writer?
I am a thriller writer, with a focus on science fiction. Even though my first novel was set in the superhero genre, I imagined they derived their powers from explainable, scientific-ish advances (I include the “ish” because it IS the superhero genre, which doesn’t bother with following science too closely). With The Price of Safety, I feel I’ve found my niche, focusing on near future sci-fi.
Before I ask you about your writing process, I think it’s important to point out that you have a full-time career in banking, which likely means long hours in the office. First, how do you find the time to write? Second, is it difficult switching your mental gears from banker to writer when working on your book?
I struggle to find time, especially as my full-time career has grown in responsibility. I’m lucky that I have a wife who has her own passion outside of work. She is a skilled photographer, and many weekends she travels to one of the national parks in our area or edits pictures she’s taken while I write. The fact we have separate interests has benefitted both of us.
To answer your other question, it is difficult, though I’ve had a lot of practice juggling my writing with my career. My day job is very logical, numbers-driven, and requires a focus in lending, economics, market trends, etc. My writing is creative and nonstructured and has to encompass so many aspects from pacing to plot to character arcs, along with the editing and business-side of the industry. Because the two sides are so different, I normally cannot work my day job and write anything meaningful in the evenings, so I do most of my writing on the weekends. During the week, I plan out what I want to write that upcoming weekend, work out angles, tweak things I want to focus on, etc., so that I can be productive on those days I can write.
Walk us through your process for writing The Price of Safety. How do you go from the initial spark of an idea to crafting a detailed and thought-provoking novel?
I took the initial idea—a father protecting his daughters in a dangerous future—and created a fake blurb, as if it was a completed book. If the idea grabs me, like this one did, I then start to work out the story: why would the father have to protect his daughters, why the world is dangerous, what could’ve happened that would’ve put them in real danger, why he couldn’t just go to the police, and so on.
I generate options, ideas, character sketches, and locations, getting a feel for what kind of story I want to create, before diving into research, as I need an idea of what I want to accomplish. Throughout the process, I need to remain open-minded. Some of my best ideas came later in the process, which is frustrating but leads to an even better story than I’d first imagined. For The Price of Safety, I generated approximately one hundred, single-spaced pages of notes. Then I had to create a coherent story out of those thoughts.
I outline heavily, not only to corral the pile of notes and thoughts I’ve generated, but because of the logic in my world. The story is very layered and follows strict rules. Because of this, I was forced more than once to delete entire sections of my story because they didn’t follow my world’s rules (which was painful but necessary). The actual writing of the rough draft only took three months, however, as I’d worked on the outline for a year before that. Then came the editing, the most important part. That took about a year and a half. The effort appears to have been worth it, however, given the reviews and the awards The Price of Safety has received so far.
Last question. When can we expect your next novel, and can you give us a peek at what it will be about?
I’ve completed the rough draft for the sequel to The Price of Safety, and I’m editing it now. Dray executed a brave (and possibly foolhardy) move at the end of the first book. His actions have consequences, many of which are unintended, and the second book reveals the fallout from his actions. The story begins one month after the end of The Price of Safety; during the course of the novel, Dray and his daughter Raven are tested in ways they never expect. In the end, no one escapes unscathed.
Michael, thank you sharing your time and insights with us. Once again, his name is Michael C. Bland and his latest book is The Price of Safety, available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle from World Castle Publishing.
