Listened to the audiobook with Mark Boyett – well read.

Seldom have I read a sci-fi story that is at once so cynical and scathing and so true to life.

No, I don’t really expect TV networks to start organising mass shootings to bring ratings up. But all small elements that make up American society in Vigilance – the overt racism and sexism, the cynical appeals to patriotism, the casual audience manipulation – all resonate strongly with the kind of society that MAGA-republicans are actually on their way to creating. Bennett was writing in 2019, towards the end of the first Trump presidency, and I think he had a really good feeling for the direction the US had taken.

Especially in the first half of the story, Bennett does an amazing job of setting a great stage and defending his absolutely bonkers premise. I was sucked straight into his disgusting and fascinating dystopia.

I think Vigilance had the potential to be really good.

Unfortunately, Bennett wasn’t quite content with just a well-executed premise. Towards the end of the novella, Bennett attempts to place the story of Vigilance in a wider geopolitical context with a grand finale. I feel his conclusion takes the reader’s attention away from the Vigilance-event at the core of the book and takes it over the top to where my suspense of disbelief snapped.

I think it is a pity. I feel like that big finale wasn’t necessary to make the point Bennet was trying to make, and it detracts from the message it does send by taking the novella from unlikely but creepily familiar Black Mirror-territory to more safely impossible speculation.

Having said that, I think Vigilance is well worth your time despite its probably overambitious finish – the cynical picture of the US Bennett paints – even if it borders on caricature – is a good reminder of where the world might be heading if we don’t stand up and reject those politics.