3 out of 4 stars
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In Final Notice, the NRA is helping senior citizens buy guns at discounted rates. In California, retirees Vince and Trudi consider buying a gun for the first time even as they see an uptick in news stories about shootings perpetrated by senior citizens. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Vijay Patel has invented a smartwatch (the VT2) that can inform the wearer if they have less than 30 days to live. The VT2 is a medical device that has amazing potential to help humankind and change the process of dying as we know it. When a VT2 user is also a gun owner, the consequences can be ruinous. The author blends these storylines in an exploration of gun culture, the value of immigration and the role of law enforcement in the United States today.
Final Notice is a study in unintended consequences. Fleisher repeatedly explores the rational and after-effects of individual and group actions and the impacts (positive and negative) of inventions and technology. Although not a new invention, guns are a primary focus of this discussion. As our society continues to struggle with the impact of guns, the author has given us a new set of ethical considerations to explore with the VT2 smartwatch. The author has also given us smart and virtuous characters in the VT2 inventor and his employees. They work hard at trying to identify negative outcomes, responsibly test the technology and make sensible choices in how they take the product to market. Nevertheless, there are devastating negative consequences including to people who have no awareness of the existence of the VT2 device.
The author’s handling of the smartwatch scenario, the ethical decision-making processes used by the characters and the outcomes all ring true to me. Likewise, Fleisher’s handling and development of other storylines, characters and ideas are on par with the example above. We can see and understand the motivations of the characters throughout the book. We can empathize with why they have the views they have and take the actions that they take.
Readers who enjoy thoughtful suspense and an idea-driven plot will enjoy this book. Those who are interested in the gun debate in our country may enjoy the explorations of gun-related issues, but to be sure the book favors left-leaning positions and may be too much for some conservatives to enjoy. That being said, the left-leaning ideas are couched in the reasons for those viewpoints and I think the author does a good job of presenting those positions.
I rate Final Notice 3 out of 4 stars. Van Fleisher has written a thought-provoking, suspenseful thriller that I truly enjoyed reading. I wanted to give this book four stars, but I couldn’t because I noticed a grammatical error and because I found the occasional “Notes to the Reader” to be jarring changes of tone. Although they gave helpful information the notes pulled me out of the story and I thought the information could have been provided in a different way. On the whole, this book is clever and “of the moment” and the diversity of characters and their cultures added nice depth to the story. I won’t hesitate to recommend Final Notice.
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Final Notice
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