The Liberty Box Trilogy
The Liberty Box
The Liberty Box Trilogy Book 1 by C.A. GrayGenre: New Adult Dystopian
**Dystopian mind control with metaphysics**
Kate Brandeis has it all: a famous reporter at the age of twenty-four, she’s the face of the Republic of the Americas. She has a loving fiancé and all the success she could wish for. But when she learns of the death of a long-forgotten friend, her investigations unravel her perfect memories, forcing her to face the fact that she’s been living a lie.
Jackson MacNamera, trained from a young age in the art of mind control, returns to the Republic for his mother’s funeral. Within a few hours of his arrival, authorities collect Jackson and take him by force to a room ironically called The Liberty Box, where he must choose between surrendering his thoughts to the new Republic, or fleeing for his freedom.
Kate, bereaved and confused, finds her way to a cave community of refugees, where Jackson seems to offer her an escape from her grief. The two forge an uneasy bond, and in the process Jackson learns that Kate has some insight which may help the hunters in their attempt to free other citizens from the tyranny of the Potentate. Against the expressed wishes of the Council, the hunters plot a series of daring raids, attempting to prove that not only is freedom possible, but that the citizens are not too far gone to desire it. But with the odds so stacked against them, can the refugees succeed in their rescue missions right under the Potentate’s nose?
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Ben’s face took on a bit of a glow. “Picture this,”he declared. “There will be no private businesses. All of them will be government-run. Everyone will be a government employee, and will be placed in a position that best suits his abilities. Higher education will exist, but only for those who score high enough on placement exams; everyone else will be funneled into trades or physical labor. The education programs will be selected for the individual, based upon aptitude. And because there will be no market to determine value of a given skill, everyone will make the same hourly wage—but all of it will go into government coffers. Then the government will dole out what each person needs for survival, and no more than that: a standard ration of food, health care, housing, and etcetera. “The primary difference between this new Republic and other socialist systems is that the people will have a mindset of true selflessness and altruism. They will adore their government. They will see the government as a loving parent, meeting their needs with abundance—because that is what they will be programmed to believe. Anyone who resists will first receive another injection of the virus to see if they can be rehabilitated. In the event that the second attempt also does not work, they must be swiftly eliminated. This is absolutely necessary, or we risk rebels who might start a revolution.” The irregular room burst into murmurs at this. They were excited murmurs, as Ben knew they would have to be—he had thought of everything. “But!”he cried out, his voice ringing over the chatter of the crowd, and he waited for their voices to die down enough before he declared, “in order for this vision to become a reality, you will need a strong leader!” “You, I suppose?”cried one. “Of course,”Ben grinned. “I am the one who knows more about both of these measures than anyone. I will, of course, require your complete allegiance. This will be no easy task. The time for dissension and such antiquated ideas as checks and balances has come and gone.” “What will you call yourself? The President?”shouted one, scornfully. “Oh, no no no,”Ben said, softly. “The title of President implies a democracy, and I do not wish to be misleading. I will call myself—the Potentate.”Yes, he thought, sighing with pleasure. What an appropriate title.
The Speaker for the Tribunal put it to a vote. Ben Voltolini was elected Potentate with an eighty-five percent majority in the last democratic act of the former Congress of the United States of America. As his first act as Potentate, Voltolini declared that the nation would henceforth be known as the Republic of the Americas. “Gentlemen of the Tribunal,”he declared, “we are making history. Together, we shall create the world’s very first utopia.”
The Eden Conspiracy
The Liberty Box Trilogy Book 2
The refugee caves have been destroyed, and most of the refugees are dead. The Potentate now knows of their existence and will stop at nothing to wipe them out completely. He suspects that terrorist Jackson MacNamera is among them, as well as reporter Kate Brandeis’s fiancé, hacker Will Anderson—and probably therefore Kate herself. Now that the Potentate is aware of security threats, most of the strategies the rebels used to get back onto the grid before now no longer work. The Potentate knows the rebels are on foot, and he knows they were at the caves not long ago—they can’t get far.
The remaining rebels, among them Jackson and Kate, have Kate’s fiancé Will to thank for their survival: he arrived back from the dead and in the nick of time, bearing classified information about the Potentate’s plans to expand his influence internationally. But the remaining rebels and the Council cannot agree on whether their top priority should be spreading truth far and wide and freeing as many citizens from government control as possible, knowing that they will likely die in the process—or escaping to New Estonia, in hopes that they might live out the rest of their days in peace.
Kate, meanwhile, finds herself torn: between Jackson and the fiancé she thought she lost, and between the damsel-in-distress she once was, and the rebel she believes she has always been underneath. Whether the other hunters will support her or no, she knows she must use her influence over the people of the Republic to tell them the truth, no matter the cost. But is she strong enough to withstand the government’s lies?
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The Phoenix Project
The haven city of Beckenshire has been demolished, and most of the rebels lie beneath the rubble. The few that remain scramble to communicate with the the outside world, knowing that if they are to stand a chance in the coming war, they can’t do it alone. In a last ditch effort to grow their ranks, the remaining rebels systematically destroy the repeaters which help to propagate the control center signals. And it’s working: citizens in targeted cities are waking up in droves. But Ben Voltolini will stop at nothing to quell the uprising before it has a chance to get off the ground. And he has one major ace up his sleeve: Kate Brandeis.
During Kate’s broadcast to the nation, Voltolini unleashed targeted brainwave signals against her, causing her to allow both Jackson MacNamera’s capture, and her own. Now, despite Voltolini’s exquisite wining and dining, she can’t seem to stop the panic attacks. Whom can she trust? What is truth? Is there even such a thing?
Meanwhile, imprisoned and hopeless, Jackson realizes the depths of his feelings for Kate only after he has already lost her. The incredible self-control upon which he prides himself gets put to the ultimate test when he meets an unlikely ally who just may turn the tide in the rebels’ favor—but only if Jackson can put aside his own bitterness. In this gripping conclusion to The Liberty Box Trilogy, new and surprising alliances are formed, passions run high, and our heroes learn what they are really made of. Do they have what it takes to fight for freedom—even if it means paying the ultimate price?
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C.A. Gray is the author of three YA Amazon bestselling trilogies: PIERCING THE VEIL (magic and quantum physics meet Arthurian legends), THE LIBERTY BOX (dystopian metaphysics and mind control technology), and UNCANNY VALLEY (dystopian coming-of-age with neuroscience and super intelligent A.I). She starts with some scientific concept that she’s interested in learning more about herself, and then creates lots of epic chaos and high-stakes action to go along with it. Her stories are free of gratuitous violence, language, and sexual content, and she abhors depressing endings… but they’re not all kittens and rainbows either! She also listens to and reviews audiobooks on her website, here on Goodreads, on Instagram, and on her podcast, Clean Audiobook Reviews, where she also occasionally interviews other authors.
By day, C.A. Gray practices naturopathic medicine, podcasts, and writes medical non-fiction under her maiden name (Dr. Lauren Deville). She lives in Tucson, AZ with her husband Frank, and together they maintain an occasionally contentious film review blog (under her real name: Lauren Baden. Three names. Yes.) She’s kind of the queen of multitasking—so in her spare time, she creates whatever meals or crafts she found most recently on Pinterest, drinks lots of coffee (Aeropress btw) and occasional wine (reds—and she saves the corks for craft projects), works out (while listening to audiobooks), and studies the Bible—about half of the podcasts on Christian Natural Health are scripture meditations.
She does sleep, too. Promise.
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It was May of 2014, before I’d even published “Impossible,” the last book of “Piercing the Veil,” when I first started brainstorming a dystopian world. I was on vacation with my family in Puerto Rico, and I’d go jogging on the beach out to a rock jutting into the ocean, where I paced and talked to myself out loud. (That’s how I brainstorm. It totally works.) I wrote the outline for the entire series on that trip… involving a mob boss named Voltolini who had funded the development of a lethal genetically modified virus, and a princess who overheard Voltolini’s shady dealings with her father the king. Voltolini then arranged to have the entire royal family murdered, but the princess managed to escape, fleeing for her life.
As I guess you can tell, the story underwent many permutations after that. Originally I intended to send my characters to New Estonia, so I did a lot of research into the current Estonia in order to be culturally accurate. As mentioned, Voltolini started out as a mob boss, not a billionaire venture capitalist—so I researched how the mob worked. I read a 600+ page book about microbial epidemics and how they mutated. I decided it was too cheesy for the main character to be the princess in a constitutional monarchy after all, so then I made her the princess’s maid. That didn’t work either, so finally became a reporter in a Republic (no royal family whatsoever). Alas, the only part of that original plan that stuck was the genetically modified virus, and a slimy villain named Voltolini.
In other words, I wrote about 60 pages of four different versions of “The Liberty Box” before I finally found the story I wanted to tell.
The biggest breakthrough was the moment I decided the genetically modified disease would not be lethal, but would merely render the people docile. From there, the rest of the story began to take shape: financial collapse of the United States (I’d been reading about economic theory and inflation), paving the way for Voltolini to gain power by being the only one to keep his head in a crisis.
I also wanted to find a way to work in one of my favorite themes: don’t always believe what you think. While I don’t believe there are really control centers influencing our every thought in the real world (nor penumbra whispering in our ears what we ought to believe, as in the first trilogy), I do think too many of us believe our own thoughts are true without question, even when they are really lies. (I see this all the time in my day job as a doctor: sometimes the lies we tell ourselves can even make us sick!)
As a contrast to this world of brainwashing, though, I needed a character who was impervious. He’d have to come from somewhere outside the Republic, so that he’d be unaccustomed to brainwashing, but I also wanted him to have extra training in the art of distinguishing truth from lies. Enter Jackson: part hero, part mentor as far as Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey” was concerned. (The mentor can be the love interest too, right??)
In fact, my favorite part about writing this series were the relationships between the characters. In general, the characters make the story, I think—and I really identified with both Kate and Jackson, in different ways. Kate is not your typical “bad-ass” female lead, but to me that made her more real, especially given the fact that she’d been brainwashed for most of her life. She had to struggle to grow into herself. It made sense that she would fall in love with a man who could offer her his strength as she went through that process, but I also wanted her to find herself, not just lean on him. I wanted her to contribute to the rebels’ cause in a meaningful way, to be a worthy partner for a guy like Jackson. It was rewarding to watch her become that person.
My hope is that this is a series that will make you think as much as entertain you. I hope that as a result of reading this book, you take a step back and wonder, What lies have I been believing?
Thanks so much for sticking with me through this journey!
All the best,C.A. Gray
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