Planet Black

PLANET BLACK is a novel that addresses the prominent issues of race and technology in America. There are two dominant forces in American society - race and technology. We bear witness to a continuous string of racially tinged events. Some are minor (the YouTube video showing an everyday racial confrontation) or major (another video showing the death of a person of color at the hands of someone in authority). We are also bombarded with technological innovations daily, self-driving tractor trailers in Arizona and the rise of speaker-assistants in American homes as examples. Both are all-pervasive and beg the question of where this is heading for our country and the world. PLANET BLACK offers a vision of the future, one that is more uncomfortable than our present. The pandemic which strikes at the beginning of the novel places people of African descent in charge of the planet. This disaster forces African Americans to discuss and confront issues of race, justice and what it means to be an American. In this way, the reader, a person of any race, is forced to consider those questions as well. Technology threatens this post-pandemic America, tech that is a simple extension of the innovations we have seen thus far. The story speaks to the history of race in America and the increasing dominance of technology in our lives. This a futuristic thriller that is exciting and thought-provoking.