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We Need Madmen, Sam Smith, 2007, ISBN 9781904646457 This story takes place in a near-future Europe that has recently gotten over a new war, caused by a man named Soper. It came about because of the newest attempt to purge Europe of "undesirables," like welfare spongers, slackers and social benefit scroungers. The generally accepted myth in Europe is that minority migrant workers are the culprits. In France, the problem is with the Algerians; in Britain, it’s the Blacks and Asians; in Denmark, it’s the Cypriots. All of them went to the Camps. They no longer try to hide them with names like Internment Camps or Re-education Camps; they’re just Camps. Henry is your average petty thief who spent time in the Camps. Now that he’s out, he goes back to his old ways, and hides the Camp tattoo on the back of his hand as much as possible. One day, Henry decides to become a serial killer, targeting members of the Soper regime. There is no blinding flash of inspiration, or sudden righteous anger to go along with it. Henry patiently and methodically cross-references phone book addresses with newspaper articles and tax records. His target is not the high-level members of the regime, but the low-level clerks and prison guards, those who were simply "doing their job." In a last-ditch effort, Soper launched Europe’s nuclear missiles to all parts of the globe. The world had gotten together to oppose him, so space-based lasers took care of the missiles. After Soper was gone for good, the rest of the world, led by America and Russia, decided that building weapons against each other was no longer necessary. It took six months for the world to disarm, and not much longer for a World Constitution to be established. This is a short book that says a lot. I would have preferred a bit more background into Soper and the Camps, but this is still a gem of a story. Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose website, Dead Trees Review has over 600 reviews on all subjects, with an emphasis on small press books.
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