I like Beck, really I do. I've enjoyed his nonfiction a good deal but I just don't think he's cut out for fiction. The book could have been titled, "1984 Light" and he got a bit tedious with spelling out the characters' political motivations. I'm not planning on returning the book via the store's front window or anything, but it was a single-reader for sure. Even though it weighs in at around 425 pages (or thereabouts) it *felt* like 150 because it lacked mortar to the story. Before the reader knows it, the book is over and he has yet to develop any real emotional investment in the characters.