Obvious in Hindsight
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
A tech start-up and their cutthroat consultants will stop at nothing to realize their dream of filling the skies of America’s cities with flying cars…and their opposition is equally determined to bring that dream crashing down.
Dozens of start-up tech companies are forming each week, innovating at a breakneck pace and forcing change overnight, ready or not. In the blisteringly funny Obvious in Hindsight, the new technology in question is flying cars, and they’re coming to a crowded urban area near you. But before that happens, the slick and powerful political consultants campaigning to get the new tech adopted will have to manipulate political operatives to their advantage while overcoming fierce opposition from groups hostile to the idea, from the strategically aligned taxi cab and rideshare companies to the squawking, costumed Audubon Society, the socialists, and the Russian mob.
This story takes readers on a richly imagined, page-turning journey through multiple cities populated by opposing special interest groups, hucksters, and corrupt power brokers. A riveting and ultimately insightful satire that provides an insider’s view of how capitalism, politics, and entrepreneurship intersect, Obvious in Hindsight is a timely novel destined to become one of the most entertaining cautionary tales of the millennium.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this quirky and erratic riff on the future of flying cars, venture capitalist Tusk (The Fixer) glibly imagines a national fiasco. Susan Howard, CEO of Flight Deck, has promised billionaire investors that she will launch the first flying car by the end of her first quarter. She hires strategist Nick Denevito to help clear political hurdles along the way, but when a flock of protestors wearing bird costumes shout down Howard in New York, many elected officials back away from the project. Denevito and his ambitious protégé, Lisa Lim, dash to Austin and Los Angeles hoping to rally support for Howard—even as her prototypes keep crashing. Despite shady and elaborate side deals with teamsters and mobsters, Denevito and Lim can't move mountains. And when two FBI agents conducting surveillance from a food truck approach Lim with information indicating that Denevito has been defrauding clients, she's thrust further into a murky political underworld. Though Tusk's satire is at times hilarious and insightful, the story has so many plot twists and characters that it can become tedious. The author's tendency to lump environmentalists, liberals, socialists, and basically anyone not motivated by big money into a catch-all category of dumb idealists doesn't help. This cynical, futuristic twist on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang doesn't quite get off the ground.
