Final Chance by Van Fleisher

A third disturbing reflection on the American mindset, Final Chance by Van Fleisher is a prophetic piece of fiction, and the climactic conclusion to the author’s dystopian near-future trilogy.

Bouncing between our real-world present and an uncertain imagined fate, Fleisher takes readers through a sci-fi envisioning of pandemic-peppered decades ahead, and the desperate decisions the world must make to ensure humanity’s survival. Society has never stood on a more fragile precipice, and while the Domed Generation of the 2050s is growing used to life inside, protected from the “alien” atmosphere, the increased susceptibility to respiratory disease makes remaining populations dangerously unstable.

However, navigating the complex ocean of bodily autonomy, political mistrust, and existential angst of a volatile public puts humanity’s final chance in jeopardy. Vijay Patel and Alek are once again called on to protect the world with their Beli-Tel inventions, but this time with a novel disease-detecting wearable, adding to their high-tech repertoire of Covid detectors, death foretellers, and mental implants.

Weaving our Covid-focused reality with visionary fiction, Fleisher’s prose is imaginative and engrossing, while also delivering the occasional gut-punch when an allegory hits home. This novel – and the entire series – shines a light of sci-fi satire on the tumultuous state of today’s affairs, while still being chilling and prescient. The issues being explored in this novel echo the same existential crises the world has wrestled for nearly 2 years, making this a poignant read that still manages to be entertaining.

The language is simple and straightforward, making the book broadly accessible, though there is a noticeable lack of emotional peaks and valleys. Written in a declarative, nearly journalistic style, this time-jumping, tongue-in-cheek narrative delves into individual psyches as easily as it unravels the frightened, recognizable soul of a nation, for an incisive and page-turning read.