The story (as a story with characters) fell apart after chapter fifteen. It became more of a thought exercise narrative of "future history" which was too bad. I'm guessing that the author got a bit lazy at that point. Too bad.
Haven't gotten past chapter seventeen where it was talking about hyper inflation and the collapse of the economy. One thing (among many) not fleshed out is the inevitable disappearance of electricity. With the kind of inflation that was being described it would be impossible to produce electricity as we know it today. The problem with that is that it is also impossible for society to exist as we know it without electricity. There would be unimaginable consequences if electrical production were to go to brownouts or rolling blackouts let alone complete cessation of power production. And that's just one link, although a very important link, in the supply chain of the economy. Food production would also suffer. Healthcare as we know it would vanish. The deaths in dense urban areas would be beyond catastrophic. Death everywhere but the cities would be horrific deathtraps.
I would have to believe that before those physical realities came to fruition the feds would declare martial law and attempt to seize control of a lot of these things.
That might be the watershed moment where things turn truly ugly regarding violence and resistance.
Hard to see the way things will go. You know, of course, that the economy cannot tolerate what it is and has been subjected to...the whole unsustainable thing...but HOW things will go down, that's pretty tough to predict and this author is merely taking his best stab at it.
