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Michael C. Bland’s The Price of Safety (World Castle Publishing) is unforgettable and edge-of-your-seat fiction. The award-winning author of The 13th Continuum, Jennifer Brody, praised this novel profusely, saying that “Exceptional worldbuilding and non-stop action combined with heart and compelling characters make Bland’s debut a must-read sci-fi book.” The year is 2047 (and now that we’ve entered 2022, that doesn’t seem very far away, does it?) In this future America, no crime goes unsolved and no wrongdoing goes unnoticed. Accountability has leveled up into an entirely new beast. 

Dray Quintero toes the blurry line between good and evil after finding out that his daughter Raven committed a horrible and highly punishable act. His protectiveness kicks into high gear and he chooses to cover it up to save her life. In direct, though secret, conflict with the police he’s respected since youth, he runs into Kieran, a ruthless federal Agent. To survive, Dray must circumvent the very surveillance system he helped build and the state-of-the-art technology implanted in people’s heads. Yes, literally, because everyone has a microcomputer in their brain and computer-screen lenses set inside their eyes.

Forced to turn to a domestic terrorist group, the only people willing to go up against the government, to save his loved ones, Dray’s in a new sort of crisis; he tries to resist joining their cause but these his adversaries have a level of control he’s unable to escape … that no one can. Hunted, double-crossed and on a high-stakes time-crunch, Dray must choose between saving Raven and dismantling the near-perfect society he helped create. 

Aren’t you edging closer to your screens just reading this blurb? We sure are, so we pinned down the author to ask a few further questions to prepare for diving into his dramatic and daring new novel. 

Q: Take us through the plot of The Price of Safety.

A: By 2047, the United States has virtually eliminated crime. It comes with a price: a world filled with surveillance cameras that track citizens’ every move. 

Dray Quintero, a gifted engineer, thought he’d helped society by creating the camera network. But when his nineteen-year-old daughter Raven accidentally commits murder, he fights his own network to save her life — and learns that no one can trust their own eyes due to the technology implanted in everyone’s heads. 

Desperate to protect his family, he joins a group of rebel fighters to hide from the government, whose key Agent is hunting them, but his family ends up betrayed and broken. Stabbed by the Agent and left for dead, with time running out, Dray realizes he only has one chance before losing Raven forever. 

Q: Discuss the moral dilemma of Dray, who on the one hand wants to help cover up the heinous crime committed by his daughter but knows what he will be up against by doing so.

A: Dray believes in the law. It’s why he built the camera network: to make the world safer for his daughters. When Raven protected herself at the beginning of the book, however, she inadvertently ripped out her attacker’s neural net — the inch-long computer each person had implanted in their head. 

Each implant is linked to a person’s passwords, memories, etc. and removing them is punishable by death. Dray not only risks arrest and possible execution by covering up Raven’s crime, he puts his wife Mina and other daughter Talia at risk as well. Yet if he does nothing, Raven’s life would end; and he would effectively tear his family apart, as he would’ve failed to protect her.

Q: Please tell us about the role technology plays in the story and the futuristic society that Dray helped create.

A: Technology brings multiple threats and creates an array of obstacles, but it also offers ways for Dray to fight their adversaries. It isn’t easy. The technology hunting him and his family permeates their lives, from the implants in their heads to the nationwide camera network. Their only hope is to somehow use technology to their advantage and stay one step ahead of the Agents hunting them.

The society of 2047 is also a threat. People have not only embraced their implants but they have also taken their leaders in Washington D.C. at face value. They’ve let someone control what they can see, which means they not only can be manipulated, they can be used in the hunt for Dray and his family.

Q: What was the inspiration for the primary characters in the book? Do they reflect any people you actually know or are they purely creations of your imagination?

A: Though most of the characters in The Price of Safety are creations of my imagination, Dray was the exception. He was inspired by my grandfathers. Both were brilliant engineers. My mother’s father was a chemical engineer who spoke five languages. My father’s father was a metallurgical engineer, one of the top experts on the planet at one time. 

Both tried to enlist during World War II but both were turned down due to their special abilities. My mother’s father became a supervisor at a bomb-making factory during the war, while my other grandfather oversaw the construction of battleships in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I admired both of them, and Dray’s skills and personality stem from them.

Q: Besides an exciting story, what are the key themes in the book?

A: Family is a primary theme: how far would you go to protect your family, especially in a world where every move is watched? Dray’s central motivation is protecting his wife and daughters. They mean the world to him, and he sacrifices everything for them. 

The dangers of technology is another theme. Technology has the ability to improve our lives and accomplish wondrous things, but it’s a tool. It can be wielded for good or evil. We should treat it as such.

Fighting for what’s right is the other main theme. A group of characters in the book, rebel fighters, are risking their lives for their beliefs. That’s a brave thing to do, especially against an all-powerful enemy.

Q: Your book, and work overall, appears to be a cross between two genres: science fiction and thriller. Where did you get the passion for these categories, and how did you get started writing within them?

A: Science fiction came from my father. He left copies of science fiction novels by Robert A Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and other gifted authors throughout our house when I was young. I read them and became hooked, not only in the wonderful worlds and adventures these novels contained but the ways science fiction reflected us at our best as well as our worst.

I discovered thrillers on my own, but their emotional roller coasters hooked me, with each twist filling me with anxiety and excitement. When I began to write my own novels, my stories grew from these two genres, with hopefully as much adventure and twists as my favorite novels.

Q: What are some novels that served as an inspiration for you?

1984 was a heavy influence with its always-watching government and oppressive society. I was also inspired by Minority Report, Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter and Eliot Peper’s Bandwidth.

Michael Crichton inspired me in a big way. He mixed science fiction with thriller-type stories in iconic novels such as Jurassic Park, Prey, and Andromeda Strain. His stories resided within the realm of various scientific fields — cloning, drone technology, etc — yet were not only interesting, he gripped readers, surprised them, and challenged them as he took them on incredible rides. 

Q: What was the most challenging part of the book to write?

A: The logic of Dray’s world was the most challenging. I pitted his family against constant surveillance, an enemy that has so many tools at their disposal there’s almost no way to fight back, and characters with implants that can be used against them.

While the story’s human element was more important than the technology I utilized, I wanted to make sure the world’s logic in The Price of Safety made sense. If I failed to consistently follow that logic, I would lose credibility and the story would collapse. I worked for months outlining and re-outlining to make sure every aspect worked before I started to write. In fact, I had to reject a number of great ideas because they violated the story’s logic.

Q: What would you hope readers take away from reading this book?

A: That The Price of Safety is a fun, fast-paced story filled with heart. 

The story takes place nearly 30 years in the future, with layer after layer of technology as well as increasing stakes as Dray discovers one secret after another, each one not only impacting his family but all of society. The Price of Safety is a reflection of the world as it could become. While it’s full of twists and turns, I wrote it to be a relatable story about family and relationships. And it shows us what could happen if we’re not mindful about the technology we as a society create. 

Yet at its center is a father wanting nothing more than to keep his daughters safe.

Q: This book is part of a planned series. What is the next part of it?

A: The second book begins eight weeks after the end of The Price of Safety. Dray threw down the gauntlet at the end of the first book. His bold act brought ramifications he didn’t expect — and now has to face. During this harrowing adventure, he explores more of his world, faces increased stakes, and actually takes on the federal government. As the rebels try to advance their rebellion, Dray makes a discovery that could change the course of the war. Then when his wife Mina makes an outrageous claim, he’s forced to choose between the rebels and a desperate hope.

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About Michael C. Bland:

Michael is a founding member and the secretary of BookPod, an invitation-only, online group of professional writers. He pens the monthly BookPod newsletter where he celebrates the success of their members, which include award-winning writers, filmmakers, journalists and bestselling authors.

One of Michael’s short stories, “Elizabeth”, won Honorable Mention in Writer’s Digest 2015 Popular Fiction Awards contest. Three of the short stories he edited have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Another story he edited was adapted into an award-winning film. He also had three superhero-themed poems published on The Daily Palette. Recently, Michael’s been garnering attention as an indie writer with finalist nods in the 2020 Indie Book Awards (Science Fiction and Thriller categories) as well as the 2020 National Indie Excellence Awards (New Adult Fiction category).

Michael currently lives in Denver with his wife Janelle and their dog Nobu. His novel, The Price of Safety, is the first in a planned trilogy.
Judy Moreno

Judy Moreno is the Assistant Editor at BookTrib and sincerely loves the many-splendored nature of storytelling. She earned a double major in English and Theatre from Hillsdale College after a childhood spent reading (and rereading) nearly everything at the local library. Some of her favorite novels include Catch-22, Anna Karenina, and anything by Jane Austen. She currently lives in Virginia and is delighted to be on the BookTrib team.

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