Title: Fiat
Author: Jeffrey D. Schlaman
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 149356093X
Pages: 288, Paperback/Kindle
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
Reviewed by: Kimberlee Hicks, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
I don’t know what it says about us as a culture that the popularity of post-apocalyptic fiction has taken such a dramatic upswing over the last several years. Zombies, nuclear wars, disease, aliens, climate change, cybernetic revolts – even Orwell’s masterpiece, 1984 is being remade cinematically. Whether viewed purely as entertainment, or a cautionary tale, they’re offering a glimpse into our collective psyches, reflecting our fears like fun house mirrors.Every once in a while there comes a story that offers something so close to home that the reading is almost painfully uncomfortable. Fiat achieves this, first, by not laying its plot hundreds of years in the future, or even ten, but only two to three. Within this easy to envision timeframe, author Jeffrey Schlaman lays for us a tale in which the United States is brought to financial ruin when their foreign debts are dumped back onto the market in an act of International aggression. As the Federal Reserve sinks to desperate and depraved levels to prevent the nation’s financial collapse, the government is made impotent and the citizenry suffers under rising inflation as civilization crumbles around them.
Fiat follows several different characters and the paths their lives take in the aftermath of the fiscal apocalypse – a new Chairman of the Federal Reserve scrambles to restore the gold standard, by no honest means, and a bishop of a new world religion counsels his growing flock as they turn away from materialism and all those who contributed to the destruction of modern society. More compelling, however, are the common men and women; the housewife, the police officer, the stripper and failed start-up founder, and more. As the price of beef rises above $100, unusual taxes are levied every day, and the Chinese buy up what Americans are increasingly too poor to afford, a select few refuse to maintain their trust in the failing economy and leave their lives behind to join a secret commune. There, they hope to live out the next few years while society crumbles around them.
What makes this book so difficult to read is the plausibility of it. No, not plausibility – probability. Schlaman makes it all too clear that we are constructing a society in which this situation is inevitable. It’s an inconvenient truth even more imminent than global warming, and just as difficult to affect change for. Fiat is an eye-opener, and a necessary one, even if at times it feels as though too much of the author’s personal politics are being broadcast. It also has the distinction of doing exactly what a new book should do: have something new to say. That its message is relevant makes it even more unique.
There is a little clumsiness in the narrative, and far too many insignificant characters. If I had one wish, it would be that Schlaman would have taken a little more time explaining some of the financial terminology for the layman. It’s easy to forgive these items though, for the simple fact that when I reached the end of the book and realized it was only the beginning of a series, I was heartily disappointed there wasn’t more, and can’t wait to see what happens next.
