When I approach a sequel to a great book, I usually experience the apprehension that it won’t measure up. So when Fastball for Freedom came out, following the magnificent novel A Mound Over Hell, I approached it with some concern. Well, there was no need to worry – this book is even better. And it is also significant now when we actually live in what seems to be the perfect setting for a dystopian novel. As they strive to survive and perhaps heal a world sunk into hatred, divisiveness, chaos, and anarchy, the sympathy I felt for the protagonists was much the same as the concern I have for our own citizens. It was impossible not to realize that the warning given to us in the first book, the threat of our collapsing culture, is simultaneously taking place in Fastball and our own lives. We are disrupted by what is politely called a pandemic, but let’s face it, it is a real historic-proportion plague. We are also threatened by the three worldwide specters of food insecurity, violence, and failing governments. Reading Fastball felt as if Gary Morgenstein acted as a visionary who is straddling present and future. Continue reading →