Published: Jan. 11, 2012
Words: 118,615 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9780957157613

Short description

"Pilgrim Process" is a near future dystopia of some 117,000 words. Is it possible that the entire world could be enslaved and transported into madness, simply because an apparently ordinary man in an unimportant small town in Hertfordshire, starts manipulating a secret society he has joined, and decides to see just how far he can make them go?

Extended description

"Pilgrim Process" is a near future dystopia of some 117,000 words.

Is it possible that the entire world could be enslaved and transported into madness, simply because an apparently ordinary man in an unimportant small town in Hertfordshire, starts manipulating a secret society he has joined, and decides to see just how far he can make them go?

The extinction of freedom seems to be a process, rather than a revolution or coup. Many countries have essentially the same ruling party, but key policies that they adopt still originate from outside The Party's policy-making machine, to the bafflement of Malcolm Mallinson, a skilled and loyal spin doctor who cannot understand why he is outside the loop, despite his closeness to the Leader and the Leader's wife. Mallinson is eventually invited to join a shadowy Brotherhood which is "really running things", and he is very surprised to discover who he is now "brothers" with! (Read more) "Pilgrim Process" is a near future dystopia of some 117,000 words.

Is it possible that the entire world could be enslaved and transported into madness, simply because an apparently ordinary man in an unimportant small town in Hertfordshire, starts manipulating a secret society he has joined, and decides to see just how far he can make them go?

The extinction of freedom seems to be a process, rather than a revolution or coup. Many countries have essentially the same ruling party, but key policies that they adopt still originate from outside The Party's policy-making machine, to the bafflement of Malcolm Mallinson, a skilled and loyal spin doctor who cannot understand why he is outside the loop, despite his closeness to the Leader and the Leader's wife. Mallinson is eventually invited to join a shadowy Brotherhood which is "really running things", and he is very surprised to discover who he is now "brothers" with!

The manipulators are manipulated, and, unable to concede to themselves that they have been ingeniously lied to and made utter fools of, they continually rationalise their collaboration with increasingly gross violations of their own personal values, interests and even the ideological objectives of the Brotherhood, let alone The Party. They are trapped by the logic of their own betrayal into ever greater betrayal, by someone whom most of them cannot even identify, let alone resist.

Only Jane Cecil, a redundant presenter of a once popular "Godslot" TV programme, can offer any alternative to this stark spiral, and then only once she's become a penniless fugitive travelling on an old bicycle and living in a bivouac.

Just as the sinister but so ordinary man behind the global conspiracy reduces that conspiracy to its ultimate logical conclusion, which is to commit atrocity just because he wills it, Jane Cecil is obliged to reduce everything she has ever believed in to its simplest possible form.

Through Jane's eyes, even a world conquered by pure evil has little pockets of calm and beauty, to which her adversaries are oblivious. The book contains some scenes of shocking brutality, as well as those of peace and beauty.

Finally, all Jane can do is offer her deepest beliefs in their simplest possible form, to those who can only realistically expect to die if they accept.

This is not the author's only book, merely his only book of this kind.
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Tags

dystopia, hertfordshire, lies and manipulation

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Reviews

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Review by: Joel Huberman on March 23, 2012 :
As a description of an unfortunately plausible near-future dystopia, this book is superb. Due to my busy schedule, it was necessary for me to read it in many sessions, frequently with many days between sessions. During these interruptions, I would emerge from the ghastly Hertfordshire world created by the author (Matthew Spencer) and turn to my American news sources to see what was happening in my real world. Frequently I wondered if I was still in Hertfordshire. In my American world, as in Spencer's Hertfordshire, most people were allowing themselves to be entertained by one outrageous political statement or act of government after another without the slightest degree of moral questioning.

I don't want to reveal any more of the plot than is provided in Spencer's "extended description" of the book. So, if you haven't read that extended description yet, please do so now, because I'll refer below to terms and people in that description.

Without revealing plot details, I can nevertheless provide the readers of this review with a sampling of my observations and reactions. I happen to be an atheist. For that reason, the religious motivations behind some of the characters' actions initially left me mystified. The way I finally successfully dealt with these initially puzzling actions was to view them as simple moral symbols of rejection of the totally amoral world-view being forced on these characters by the Party and the Brotherhood.

As I've already stated, I'm an American. For that reason I had difficulty with some of the British terminology. This problem, too, I was able to solve. The meanings of some words, such as "womble", rapidly became clear from context. Others, such as "spinneys", I could look up in a dictionary.

I found most of Spencer's writing to be clear--even occasionally inspired. But I also found a few examples of rather rough writing, the kind of thing that, I think, could easily have been repaired by a good editor. What's important, though, is that Spencer's style rarely became sufficiently noticeable to draw my attention away from the spellbinding combination of plot and plausible dystopia.

The only time I found my attention wavering was during Spencer's detailed descriptions of the methods by which Jane was able to survive for months, including winter months, on abandoned land and without significant contact with "civilization". As a one-time Boy Scout, I'm interested in such things, but I did find myself wanting to get back to the story. Perhaps Spencer's intention here was to contrast the peacefulness of Jane's isolated situation with the stressful, morally catastrophic world faced by everyone else in the novel.

There are a few shocking scenes in the book. They're not excessive, and they're not put there for the voyeuristic pleasure of the reader. They're intended to open our eyes to the horrors that many human beings will not only tolerate, but will take pleasure in, when some authority figure or other tells them it's OK. I hope the readers of this book will be forewarned and will not, like so many other people in both the real and Spencerian worlds, allow their moral sensibilities to be quenched by their "leaders".

The bottom line is that I very much enjoyed this book, and I look forward to seeing others by Spencer in the future.
(reviewed long after purchase)

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