In this futuristic novel, Donald Aldingford is a barrister employed by the wealthiest residents in 2106 London. But in A Bloody Arrogant Power, the future isn’t too bright. Unless of course you are one of the privileged few. Donald has always been satisfied with his life and doesn’t concern himself with the disagreeable facets of ‘modern’ life. Everything changes when he meets Sarah-Kelly Newman. His naïve ideologies are turned on their head as he comes to understand what it takes for some to live an elite lifestyle. Change is coming. Will Donald be able to choose the right side?
Although set decades in the future, Wardlaw’s book reads like an uncomfortable alternate historical fiction. While the sovereign class enjoys niceties like “frilly knickers and masks for the ball and other fetishes of frivolous living,” the working people toil around the clock without hope of any reward or relief. The book is an appropriate political commentary on the excesses enjoyed by a minority of our society.
Malcolm J Wardlaw is astute in his harsh depiction of man’s mismanagement of resources. Freethinkers will relish in the jarring depiction of a possible future in A Bloody Arrogant Power.
