Welcome to America in the Year 2084 She froze, hearing that eerily unnatural sound again. This time it was much closer. Brutus barked in another room and then so did Spartacus. "Did you hear it that time?" she whispered to her husband. "Hear what?" he whispered back. Her nervous agitation and the reaction of the dogs had put him on edge. His muscles tensed. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. Brutus and Spartacus scratched at the front door. BAM! Shards of glass and splinters of wood exploded around them. Someone screamed as shadowy, helmeted figures wearing night-vision goggles poured like giant beetles through the demolished door and the shattered windows... In this mystery thriller, desperate parents race against the clock to save the lives of their two children, abducted by a shadowy international society. Their mission takes a pivotal turn when they accept help from a band of gypsies, an elderly sage, and a young woman with a horrifying past. But nothing can prepare them for the decisions they must make as the fate of an apocalyptic world hangs in the balance.

ジェームズ・キーナの『2084』は、オーウェルの系譜を継承しつつ現代の歪みを増幅させた、魂を震わせるクロニクルです。単なる近未来スリラーを超え、冷徹な監視社会と対峙する家族の絆を血の通った筆致で鮮烈に描いています。システムに抗う両親の姿は、失われゆく人間性の最後の輝きを体現しており、読む者の倫理観を激しく揺さぶります。 本作の白眉は、賢者やジプシー等の古典的意匠を配し、終末論的世界に神話的厚みを与えた点にあります。テクノロジーが支配する絶望の中、理屈を超えた個の決断が世界の命運を左右する展開は圧巻です。極限の選択を突きつけられる物語の果て、読者は自分自身の信念の在り処を問われることになるでしょう。