| Lars Powderdry is part of a fake arms race that falls apart when aliens invade. Lars Powderdry runs a fake weapons company in an alternate future 2004 where the cold war is faked so that governments can make money. Lars is unhappy with the fact that his company makes weapons that don't work. Workers are kept in a drugged state as they work and are shown comic book images so that they think the are really building weapons instead of furniture and toys. He tries to make secret contact with his counterpart in the Soviet controlled zone. She hires agents from the Western Bloc to kill Lars for trying to mess up the wealth from the fake weapons industry. The plot fails, but Lars's mistress is killed in the attempt.
A real alien invasion begins, but there are no real weapons. The government puts out fake war footage as Lars tries to figure out how to make real weapons with the woman that tried to kill him. A new President is elected that has suspected what was going on all along. He reveals it to the people, but they don't believe him. Lars uses the drugs from the workers to travel back in time in a trance multiple times to figure out how to build war robots from the past. During one of his trips, he leaves a mark on one of the factories and finds that mark when he returns. Once he knows he can change the past, he goes back again and plants devices in toys which drug future leaders while they are children. He then manipulates the past to install himself as President, his mistress is back to life and now his wife, eliminates the fake Cold War, and brokers a peaceful settlement deal with the aliens who mostly live in New Orleans in the new version of 2004. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book - humorous or laughable FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story Time Travel: - largely backwards/past If an invasion, from Earth/human POV: - fighting overt invasion (attacking aliens) War or Invasion Yes Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Time Travel story? Yes Descript. of chases or violence - 20 % planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 60 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10 % Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 10 % Main Character Identity: - Male Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Setting Earth setting: - near future (later in 21st century) Takes place on Earth? Yes Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment scientific jargon? (SF only) - some scientific explanation How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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