Lives Less Valuable

Putting corporate disregard for ecology on trial, this novel follows Vexcorp, a wealthy corporation that, at a safe distance, counts both the lives of others and the health of the environment as expenses on a balance sheet—but that distance is about to collapse. Malia is an activist who has lost faith in systemic reform, and Dujuan is a street thug torn by grief at his younger sister’s death. When Dujuan mugs Malia, she compares him to Vexcorp, triggering a storm inside him. That storm only clears when he identifies the real agent of his pain: Larry Gordon, Vexcorp’s CEO. Injury requires justice, so Dujuan kidnaps Gordon and presents him to Malia for judgment. As bystanders become involved and time runs out, Malia is forced to make grueling moral decisions between survival and loyalty, safety and courage, and agency and despair.

Contents and Excerpts

• Part One
• It Begins With Water (p 6)
• Democracy As We Know It (p 11)
• The Gordons (p 14)
• Part Two
• Pediatrics Ward (p 59)
• Dujuan (p 63)
• Dream of Salmon (p 68)
• Part Three
• Father and Son Hunting (p 74)
• Ricky’s Death (p 101)
• Smell of Danger (p 105)
• Boo (p 117)
• Part Four
• Part Five
• Part Six

Reviews

March 2010, by Jan Smith