In Awakening, Tony Sunderland imagines a future of opulent New Cities and rotting Old Cities. Paul Valentine is an Old City Guardian, a police officer of sorts, though the title holds little meaning. People are too busy living in virtual reality and drugging themselves in the name of spiritual practice to bother with crimes. Paul’s father, Jason, is considering getting into New City’s Permanent Virtual Facility, where those near death can spend an eternity in a virtual paradise. But paradise also has its troubles. A prominent resident of the Facility has been murdered, and Paul becomes the lead investigator, happy about doing actual police work for once. This happiness doesn’t last long, though, as the Guardian confronts lies and conspiracies that will force him to question everything he knows.

Tony Sunderland’s dystopia is fictional, but it feels very realistic in a time of growing isolation and inequality. You might expect to find charismatic leaders or dominant ideologies openly oppressing the people, but there’s just apathy and escapism instead. The major powers have slowly corrupted every institution, including religion, and people have largely allowed it. So it’s no surprise that most characters struggle with meaning, trying to find their purpose in a world designed to keep them from asking questions. Even Director Shelly, one of the most powerful men around, is trapped between cold pragmatism and his personal feelings. Awakening has enough mysteries, twists, and action to keep you hooked, but it really shines as a thought-provoking psychological and sociological study. I do wish I could’ve spent more time with the world and characters, but overall, this was a solid experience.

Tony Sunderland’s Awakening is set in 2097, where the Old City survives on rationed life while the New City sells escape through technology, medicated faith, and the Permanent Virtual. Paul Valentine is a Senior Guardian paid to collect bodies after Virtual crashes, but the death of a young man on his patrol route begins to break the routine he has accepted. At home, Paul’s dying father is being courted by a Facility salesman promising a digital afterlife, while his sister Maggie has moved into dangerous company inside the Faithful. When wealthy Permanent Virtuals are murdered inside supposedly secure dormitories, Paul’s investigation leads from Zealot suspects to New World’s hidden systems. As each answer points back to the city’s machinery of surrender, Paul has to decide whether duty still means obedience.

Tony Sunderland’s Awakening is brilliantly written dystopian science fiction, and makes a broken future feel frighteningly plausible through everyday obedience. The world-building is completely fleshed out. The Cathedral of the Faithful is a fantastic example, since its white communion pills turn religious hunger into chemical management. Sophia, the woman who leads Gnosis beyond New World’s reach, is great because Sunderland uses her to show rebellion as daily life before it becomes a battle. Mason, Paul’s Guardian superior, is the best of the best in character arcs when the New World official controlling orders offers him New City comfort, yet all Mason can think about is a boy searching through the rubbish outside Headquarters. Stark and memorable, readers who enjoy dystopian science fiction about engineered submission will adore this book.