Reviews for Let's put the future behind us

The average rating for Let's put the future behind us based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-09-16 00:00:00 David Hollingsworth Jack Womack is one of America's most underrated writers; his Dryco series is among my all-time favorites of science fiction. This is his only novel that is not science fiction and it is among his best work. The facility with language he displayed in his cyberpunk-like sci-fi serves him well here because the voice is so convincingly Russian and the story completely grounded in the world of 1990s post-Soviet Russia after the fall of communism and the rise of organized crime, unscrupulous financiers, their corrupt government lackeys, and all the other virulent ills of unrestrained capitalism, a brave new world order of tooth-and-claw free enterprise. The Russian mafia as portrayed by David Cronenberg in "Eastern Promises" are pussycats compared to these guys. As darkly satiric as any of Womack's work, this is by turns hilarious and horrific and, ultimately, as grim as his Dryco series prequel, Random Acts of Senseless Violence. Highly recommended; a must-read.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-05-18 00:00:00 Charles Johnson Jack Womack is a painfully underrated writer. This book, I hear, is not his best but that is saying something as his characterization and voice here is incredibly strong. Strong enough that the extremely violent satire loses any cartoonish feel because the voice is so convincingly Russian and completely grounded in the world of 1990s post-Soviet Russia. Admittedly the conception of new Russia is that of early 1990s, and Putin's Russia is probably not a good analogue for the background. It is also a fairly interesting send up of both attempting to be an honest businessman in a fundamentally dishonest society and attempts to return to romantic pasts. While I will try to avoid spoilers: Superficially the plot seems to develop towards victory, but on deeper reading, the end can actually be quite haunting despite the seeming victory of the protagonist.