The novel I'm writing now is titled "The Ten Thousand." It takes place in the not too distant future when the world has become a single global community with a small group of leaders who control everything. The leadership inadvertently killed off 99.9% of the world's human population a few decades earlier through a gene insertion program designed to minimze deaths from cancer, heart disease, etc. that had unintended consequences, but the population is now rebounding. The government leadership now exercises strict contorl over the media however and has created a book committee whose job it is to approve all written works. (The ten thousand in the title refers to the number of books the committee feels anyone is capable of reading in their lifetime.) Books must promote the official government stance and reinforce their policies to make it onto the list of ten thousand. All other books are banned.
The story follows a young writer whose talent is discovered in elementary school who's then sent off to a special government supported school for writers where he's trained and indoctrinated in how to write in a manner that is aceptable to the government. His first book that's submitted to the book committee just squeeks onto the list of ten thousand and he becomes something of a celebrity as a result. This lands him a scholarship at a university, that's once again supported by the government to further his educaiton as a writer. There he discovers that there's a vast underground (literally in this case) library that houses many of the now banned books along with lots of old newspapers, magazines, and other published works.
It's there that he learns that the government had been warned of, and knew of the risks of the genetic manipulation program they undertook that killed most of the people. It's there, from reading some of the banned works that he starts to udnerstand how much the government is trying to hide things from the people and how much control they assert over the people.
He then teams up with a band of rebels, largely escapees from the government re-education centers, and vows to expose the truth. His next entry before the book committee is eagerly awaited but at the ceremony to formally hand over his book, he hands over a book, just not what the committee expects. He hands over a book exposing the crimes of the government and their steps to cover it up.
Not surprisingly the government doesn't take this especially well and dismisses his book as a work of satire, but copies of the book get distributed from a rebel held printing press and dissent starts to spread. The government tries to clamp down on the dissent only to have that clamp down increase the level of discontent.
The head of the book committee, previously undyingly loyal to the government leadership, senses an opportunity to seize power and ends up supporting the book and formally awarding it a spot among the ten thousand. He announces that the information in the book is in fact accurate and helps to bring about the downfall of the government. He then tries to assume the reins of power for himself, only to be in conflict with the rebels who wish to break free from a global leadership entirely and go back to local leaders making decisions instead of self-appointed aristocrats.
And that's about where things stand to this point.
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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