WILD VICTIM UNIT

A novel about the beginnings of surveillance capitalism and the end of Pax Americana.

Synth Books, New York, 362 pages. Released March 23 2024

The year is 2015. 

Instagram is growing in popularity, and everyone is talking about the revolutionary potential of social media. But in a microscopic Manhattan apartment, foreign filmmaker Clint Levanter is down on his luck—renting out his apartment to tourists while he sleeps in an abandoned rooftop boiler room.

But the wheel of destiny turns when a Hollywood acquaintance hires Clint to script a biopic about legendary sci-fi writer Vance Palentine (1938-1980)—famous his chilling description of a future U.S. brought down by a psychotic AI system called The Design. With his first big paycheck in sight, Clint feels he’s finally on the path to achieving his American dreams. But as he works on the screenplay, Hollywood unravels in a tidal wave of sex scandals and he leaves California in a broken Tesla, driving across a country rife with gender conflict, political paranoia, race riots, and the enigmatic birth of artificial general intelligence.

After a frenzied stay at a mysterious think tank in Colorado—where desire and dread clash in a luxurious survival bunker—Clint finds himself driving toward Florida to film a SpaceX launch. Soon an increasingly desperate Clint opens his mind to one of Vance Palentine's most radical ideas: that targeted assassinations of Silicon Valley leaders is the only way to prevent a future technocratic dictatorship. What began as a well-paid Hollywood gig is now turning into a nightmarish road trip where life imitates art in the most violent and outlandish ways.

WILD VICTIM UNIT is, despite its serious subject matter, also a fun read. Readers will encounter the eugenicist oligarch Klaus Muller, the Danish megalomaniac starchitect Balder Hesse, and his sponsor Crown Prince Khaled al Saud. The novel takes readers on a journey through an Western collapse, marked by oligarchy, gender wars, race riots and new, intrusive technologies.

We invite you to dive into the electrifying world of WILD VICTIM UNIT, where laughter dances with a spine-tingling blend of high-tech horror.