Volume 6- Issue 10, October 2007
Published by Llumina Press

Reviewer: Daniel J. Neumann

To be published in: E Writer Magazine, Scheherazade, and Amazon.com

Book: Dear Madman

            John A. C. Cooley places the reader in our familiar world, but through a lens. He shows us the faults of our society. He will guide you through the mind of the guilty convict, map out the dangerous steps of the high school delinquent, and analyze the motives of both terrorists and revolutionists. He informs you – with the allegories of believable scenarios – that the government has failed poor citizenry. Best of all, however, he has a solution.

            Normally, when I hear “I’m an anarchist,” I think, “Wow. Here comes another loon who either thinks chaos is ideal, or is too naive to understand the word.” But Cooley has changed my perspective. In fact, I now consider myself quite open to the concept. Here’s why:

            Cooley’s idea follows the premise that with our high-level of technology, it is now possible for every individual to create his or her own laws. Free enterprise may take over other facets of government that had any substantiality. Pain may take the place of prison, without any scars, for any crime. The education system may be revolutionized so that artificial intelligence programs analyze and teach a student at the same time. Or in other words: total privacy. In a generation where the Patriot Act exists, such a dream has become valuable.

            With the novel being well over 500 pages, there is plenty of story to provide actual blueprints for a working concept. Does John Cooley want to be the next Karl Marx? Who knows—but with a book like this, it isn’t such a stretch.

            Serious typos hold Cooley back, however. Without the eye of Big Business Publishers, or at least a better self-publisher, the manuscript has remained in its infancy, in respect to formatting. Often, the reader will wonder if the dialogue has began, seeing no quotation mark. Still, other times, the reader may stop to see a long hyphen between two words rather than a short dash. These issues sound trivial, but they do halt the flow.

            Other than that, Cooley’s Dear Madman is a beautiful work of speculative fiction—one with an actual solution to an actual problem. Follow along, as the main character, Logan, experiences all the faults of our judicial system. And then learn the stories of those who wrong him—seeing that they, too, are victims of society. Watch the world as it was, then—

            See the world change.