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    Vigilance
    Vigilance
    Vigilance
    Audiobook3 hours

    Vigilance

    Written by Robert Jackson Bennett

    Narrated by Mark Boyett

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Robert Jackson Bennett's Vigilance is a dark science fiction action parable from an America that has permanently surrendered to gun violence. The United States. 2030. John McDean executive produces "Vigilance," a reality game show designed to make sure American citizens stay alert to foreign and domestic threats. Shooters are introduced into a "game environment," and the survivors get a cash prize. The TV audience is not the only one that's watching though, and McDean soon finds out what it's like to be on the other side of the camera.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJan 29, 2019
    ISBN9781980033554
    Vigilance
    Author

    Robert Jackson Bennett

    Robert Jackson Bennett is the author of Foundryside and the Divine Cities trilogy, which was a 2018 Hugo Awards finalist in the Best Series category. The first book in the series, City of Stairs, was also a finalist for the World Fantasy and Locus Awards, and the second, City of Blades, was a finalist for the World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy Awards. His previous novels, which include American Elsewhere and Mr. Shivers, have received the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Philip K. Dick Citation of Excellence. He lives in Austin with his family.

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    Reviews for Vigilance

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    • 4/5
      After the 514th mass-shooting in 2026, someone gets a brilliant idea - why don't we make a TV show where we send the shooter in and see what happens. What about the people who happen to be where the shooter is released? Well, that's part of life - they can become victims anyway - who cares if they are victims because of a TV corporation or because a shooter chose the place on their own. Corporations agree for their venues to become part of it - they will get a cut of the profit after all and the game "Vigilance" is born - noone knows when and where it will happen - and when it happens, it is on live TV. And people die. Of course there are awards - for a shooter surviving, for someone on the ground taking down a shooter and killing instead of being killed... it's America after all. And people love it. In 2030, the media director of Vigilance, John McDean, is about to make a decision on where it will hit this time. And while we are following him while he is preparing for the show, we get to have a look behind the scenes of the reality show (well... the deaths are very real (even if they may be reported differently if that will get more viewers) but anything else... not so much). You see - reality is boring and needs to be spiced up - plus why pay people when have AIs. Except for the dying part - there you need real people. Although if they are inconvenient, they can die and invented ones may replace them in real time... And while we get to see that, we hear about the world - most of America is burning, Europe is recovering from a hurricane, the world led by China had banned any cars using petrol and so on (except for USA that is) and there had been some kind of urban war-fare in Canada. We never get too many details - these are just mentioned in passing. But what is shown a bit better is a second story, the story of a barmaid who just wants to survive - and may not have the chance to. And what everyone seems to forget is that if you are dealing with replaced reality, if you change what people think and see every time, you may not be the only one doing that. Of course it sounds exaggerated - that cannot happen... right? Right? You want to read that as satire and an impossible dystopia and yet, you keep seeing things that are already happening... and it makes you wonder - is this really that exaggerated?I suspect that the novella won't be for everyone - for one, it is very American so not sure how it will work for someone who is not dealing with the local news here, especially in the years it was written and published (2018/2019). And it will probably trigger some reactions in the American readers as well - some may feel like they are being made fun of I suspect. But it is an entertaining story -- as long as you do not try to see just how close some of it sounds like our reality.
    • 4/5
      In a not too distant future, America has given in to the orgy of violence. Mass shootings are not just common, they are televised for entertainment. Most of the young and sensible have fleed far from this increasingly dilapidated country. A News corporation that puts on these mass shootings is seemingly the power in charge. The government is largely absent, fighting some far-flung war that no one is paying attention too. The citizenry are so caught up in the homespun patriotic rhetoric and staged events, they fail to notice that their world is quickly coming to an end. Even the news is too far gone to cover actual news that when China, America's number one critic, strikes it is a complete and total surprise, now completely unable to help themselves and despite the vigilant atmosphere unable to fight their own demons.Is this an incredibly thinly veiled political commentary of a liberal bent? Sure, but it's also a fun dystopia of violence leading to its logical end.
    • 5/5
      ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.

      And, though it'll never change the mind of any Second Amendment drooling asswipe, it should be required reading for all, because it speaks a lot of truths about the misnamed "Greatest Nation in the World."
    • 3/5
      An if-this-goes-on novella about gun violence and reality TV. In a near future of massive US decline, many people agree to participate in Vigilance, in which gunmen are released to kill as many people as possible before they’re killed, at a time and place algorithmically determined to attract as many viewers as possible. An African-American bartender and the white asshole in charge of staging the show are the POV characters, and everything is awful.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this in a day and it was incredibly addicting. I don't know how to review something so terrifying and so real. So I won't. I would just recommend reading it and gathering your own thoughts.
    • 4/5
      When I started reading this novella, I didn't think I'd like it. I was wrong. I got hooked. I sincerely hope this story is not prophetic but you can see how this reality could occur. Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      Pros: thought-provoking, interesting characters, good social commentary Cons: lots of adult content In a future America, the hit reality TV show is Vigilance, where active shooters are sent into unprepared locations to see if the people there have what it takes to survive. This novella is told through the perspectives of two people. First is John McDean, a marketing man and head of Vigilance’s production team. The second is Delyna, a bartender whose patrons are hyped to watch the next episode of their favourite show. Don’t pick this up if you don’t want to read the following: mass shootings, excessive swearing, and masturbation. While not as violent and profane as some books (possibly due to its shorter length), there’s a lot of adult content here. What’s also here is some actual reasons behind why such a show is popular and what that says about the people who would watch it. Murder as reality TV (or just people being hunted for sport) isn’t new in the SF field. But quite often the violence is left unexamined. Yes, there’s often a vague hand wave to the fact that it’s a form of oppression, but Battle Royale is one of the few stories I can point to (and I’ve read/seen quite a few of these in long and short form) that actually posits a reason for why such a show is put on in the first place (though Battle Royale had a very different reason for it than Vigilance). Not only does Vigilance make you think about the story and society in general (especially today’s gun culture in the US and all of its mass shootings), it works to make the violence in the story - which could otherwise be gratuitous - deeply uncomfortable and horrifying instead of entertaining. These aren’t characters in a book fingering their guns. These are your neighbours, your friends, your family members. Delyna’s got some great scenes, especially once the TV show starts. Her story is where the social commentary really shines, in several ways. It’s short enough to read in one sitting, but will stick with you long after.
    • 4/5
      Content warning for violence.Set in a future so near it's yesterday, this short novel imagines a TV reality show, Vigilance, wherein a major network, Our Nation's Truth, occasionally drops off armed gunmen in some public place in the USA - shopping malls are popular. The location is locked down, and the people caught inside try to survive. For each shooter who dies, $1 million goes to his beneficiary; the law enforcement officer or civilian who takes him out gets $5 million - but if the shooter kills everyone, he gets $20 million. That last is unlikely, though, because every American, pretty much, is strapped, anticipating a possible attack. After all, the warning sign at the door told them the place was one of the many registered targets. Mass shootings happen so frequently anyway in America, why not take the chance and shop or travel in a target spot? If you're killed, you weren't vigilant enough.The book's ferociously paced action is confined to a single evening. We watch showrunner John McDean lead his team in building interest on social media, teasing possible targets (have to have enough women there), preparing the shooters, and lining up advertisers. When the killing starts, drones supplement the mall's cameras. Commercial breaks are saved for slow stretches. Out in the city, bartender Delyna is sickened, not just by the televised carnage, but by the avidity with which her heavily armed patrons watch the bar's big screen. Back at the ONT network, the big bosses have some new software they want to use in this episode, but McDean is sure he's in complete control.He's wrong.Given that the gun insanity of the US is impossible to satirize, still Bennett comes close. He covers the loving attention paid to the technical plusses and minuses of various types of firearm. He's especially good with his three-letter-named TV network. ONT's on air anchors and commentators are mostly algorithmically-generated, pretty, talking images, although there's also a show, The O'Donley Effect, with a live, ranting old man ("Shawn O'Donley") eating raw steaks on-air while screaming at the camera. Resemblance to actual networks and TV hosts entirely unintended, of course.McDean has a theory: the elderly audience members are unmoved by the sight of dying children, out of denial of their own responsibility for the climatically-seared, failing country they've created. Take that or leave it, Vigilance is an exciting story. You'll want to shower, afterward.