Will the nanny state and the media industry in future restrict all types of individual performance? Chance struggles on a capitalist employment treadmill that denies him freedom to take risks. He starts a PhD in science and psychology. His girlfriend Megan is a pole vault champion in training for the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane. With his help, she uses philosophies of De Beauvoir, Nietzsche, Heidegger's phenomenology and Mihaly's flow, to take personal responsibility for her training. Overreach by the nanny state threatens her use of flow. 'Levellers' want all ability levels to succeed in competitions. Philosopher Debord's 'spectacle' has performers' appearances profiting media and investors. Which will succeed: human turkey-like individualism or bee-like collectivism? When Chance and Megan catch Covid, they oppose the collectivists' mandatory vaccinations with non-violent civil disobedience. Will they succeed? This is speculative fiction satirizing athletics, rugby and ballet, exposing dark forces shaping western democratic societies, revealing how individual freedom can be saved. REVIEWS OF MARTIN KNOX'S PREVIOUS BOOKS ANIMAL FARM 2 (2021) Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite. Review Rating: 5 Stars
Fans of Animal Farm by George Orwell will adore Martin Knox's Animal Farm 2, a fable with strong hints of political satire set on a farm on tropical Caruba, an island in the grip of the Social Republic.
This is a cleverly plotted story with interesting characters, and readers will relate to the animals that behave like humans; the anthropomorphism is brilliantly executed. Readers will encounter animals such as pigs (Lords Napoleon, Natalia), cattle (Tosser, Earl, Henry, Arnold), sheep (Sharon, Trudy, Sophie, and others), goats, llamas, horses, donkeys, mules, and more. Animal Farm 2 is open to several interpretations with political manipulation, abuse of power, superpower interests, and those who bear the brunt of political manoeuvring. It is a fable, but it is the same story that we see being played out too often in the political world. The novel features relevant and deftly written political themes, a debate on climate change, and the effects of totalitarianism. The characters are elaborately written and readers can see in them a portrait of what politicians do. The satire is biting, ingenious, and written in a context that readers can relate to. Martin Knox's satirical novel is a work of great imagination.
