Inter States: Emerging Disorder, by Ralph Meima

This week, we feature Vermont novelist Ralph Meima’s provocative look at one possible future for the 21st century United States. His sprawling new novel INTER STATES, set in the year 2040, posits an energy-scarce future featuring memorable Vermont characters. Don’t miss this excerpt in our 2015 e-zine “Green Mountain Noise” here at our site.

Below, a capsule summary. Buy the book here! Free Vermont, and long live theUNtied States.

Ex-military Mike Kendeil travels to a beach house on North Carolina’s dissolving Outer Banks to help his grandmother, Florence Trudeau, rescue heirlooms from the swelling ocean. With a monster hurricane at their back and the contentious 2040 presidential election just a few weeks ahead, the two drive their loaded wagon home on a days-long journey to the Washington, DC suburbs. In 2040, America has one foot back in the nineteenth century and the other in the twenty-first as the costs of fuel and electric vehicles rise beyond the means of most people, forcing them to either walk or use older, simpler modes of travel. High-tech communications—including VNET (the post-Internet virtual reality system)—form the social glue that holds the ragged nation together, also feeding escapism from the difficult conditions of everyday life. Meanwhile, a small number of oligarchs enjoy fabulous wealth, power, and mobility. Fossil Nation is the opening volume in the Inter States trilogy, the story of an extended family spread from Virginia to Vermont living in an America staggering from the effects of energy crises, climate change, geopolitical shifts, and the poverty and political drama that accompany them.